Mental health professionals and state officials are highlighting the importance of suicide awareness and prevention practices, especially following recent natural disasters that have impacted the state.
Julie Cerel is a professor in the College of Social Work and director of the UK Suicide Prevention and Exposure Lab. She said natural disasters impact communities strongly, but not in the way many people realize.
“Mental health crisis, suicide specifically, tends to go down in the immediate aftermath of some of these natural disasters or community crisis. The problem then is, six months later, all that support tends to not be there anymore, and that’s when we really see a spike in things like post-traumatic stress disorder and depression and unfortunately suicide rates going up,” said Cerel.
Cerel said communities need to be careful to not grow complacent regarding mental health following major disasters. She said it’s important for people to think through and plan both for short term recovery and long-term issues.
One of the ways people can help their communities is by undergoing QPR training. Question, Persuade, and Refer training teaches how to respond to a person in crisis, and how to get them the help they need.
Lindsey Jasinski is the Chief Administrative Officer at Eastern State Hospital. She said the training is designed to teach how to help someone actively suffering from a mental health crisis.
“Many times, we’re afraid to ask those questions, because I’m not sure how I’m going to respond or what do I do if somebody says they are really struggling? And QPR training does a really great job of saying your role as a first responder in that situation is to ask those questions, open that conversation, and then be a bridge to those resources,” said Jasinski.
Jasinski said this is much like how CPR serves as a bridge to get someone to the right level of care that they need. QPR works to help connect people with the right mental health resources and services. She said this is now more important than ever, as in 2020 suicide was the second leading cause of death for those aged 10-to-34 in the state.
Free sessions to learn QPR are available at qprinstitute.com.