QPR Institute

In this issue: brief news items and a review of the Institute of Medicine's Reducing Suicide: A National Imperative, 2002.

Dr. Quinnett’s Counseling Suicidal People: A Therapy of Hope, is now available from our bookstore in a home study format for 8 hours of National Board of Certified Counselor continuing education. A reviewer said, “This is simply the best no-nonsense guide I have ever read to help one understand and form a collaborative, working relationship with someone in suicidal despair.” Lanny Berman, Ph.D., Executive Director, American Association of Suicidology. On March 1st mainland China opened its first suicide prevention hotline! To our new friends and colleagues in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong we wish the very best in their efforts to save lives. With 21% of the world’s population and suicide being the number one cause of death in young Chinese adults, it is projected China will lose more than 500,000 people to suicide each year by 2020 if effective suicide prevention efforts are not undertaken now. The staff and faculty of the QPR Institute are working with the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center to help develop distance learning, education and training programs and in adapting the QPR model for China.

The QPR on CD-ROM suicide prevention gatekeeper training program has been thoroughly tested and is now available through our web site. Reviews by experts and several hundred beta test participants have been excellent. We are building a data collection and data management system now to provide automatic evaluation and outcome reports to large institutions and employers. This new approach to teaching QPR is intended to get low-cost gatekeeper training into frontier and rural America and, conversely, into the hands of large employers where all employees and their families can receive suicide prevention training.

Book Review: IOM Reducing Suicide: A National Imperative, 2002

© Paul Quinnett, Ph.D.
The long-awaited Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report on suicide prevention has arrived. The National Academies, and the IOM, represent America’s most authoritative voice on matters of science. Entitled, Reducing Suicide: a National Imperative (National Academies Press, 2002), and almost 500 pages in length, this text is not holiday reading fare. On the other hand, this compact, tightly written, evidence-based report has, in its own way, a compelling tale to tell.

I read Reducing Suicide while flying from Seattle to Beijing and back. I was not bored. I learned more than I thought I would. I liked the book for several reasons. First, it is shorter than some in my collection and yet contains a great deal more of what is relevant to preventing suicide than most. Second, a burdened reader like everyone else, I appreciated the way the authors and editors used short, declarative English sentences powered by active verbs. Third, the book begins with the following quote from Goethe, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” Reducing Suicide is not so much a review of the literature, as a call to action.

In this text a scattered scientific literature is carefully selected for relevance and punch and then marshaled in force to justify statements and bold recommendations at the end of each chapter. In addition to the distillation of science that leads to key recommendations for action, the text is peppered with carefully selected personal stories, excerpts, poems and quotations to balance the statistics with human experience. While numbers may be forgettable, human stories are not. The result is a heavily-referenced scientific text powered by that unmistakable passion shared by those of us working to save lives from suicide.

As a lawyer might say about the evidence presented in this IOM report, most of the facts are “clear, cogent and convincing.” The tone is, “Let’s get going!” Yes, we need better surveillance of suicidal behaviors. Yes, we need more population-based research on the effects of everything from serotonin to sermons but, in fact, we know enough in some areas to proceed with vigor.

Beyond the four primary broad recommendations for change, there are a host of findings and additional recommendations for action published in bold type at the end of each chapter. Some these recommendations will be easier to implement than others. Massive funding for population-based research carries one price tag; requiring a minimum suicide prevention curricula in our institutions of higher learning carries quite another. How much, for example, does it cost to provide a required lecture series on suicide risk and protective factors and evidence-based interventions for clinical trainees? Some of the recommendations could be initiated with minimal action by an enlightened leadership and a stroke of the regulatory pen.

My hope for Reducing Suicide is not that many thousands will read it and be energized and motivated to sign up for a tour in the suicide prevention crusade, but that its very presence will create a lasting cognitive dissonance between what is and what can be. Out only a few months, its impact is already being felt. Suicide prevention leadership is downloading IOM findings and recommendations into everything from grant applications to organizational goals. For those pioneers heading into the uncharted territory of suicide prevention, here is a map and compass.

As the IOM message that lives can be saved seeps into our culture, our films, our public health messages, our sermons and standards of clinical practice, I believe a fundamental change in our how we deal with suicide in America will overtake our culture. Scientific evidence does - eventually and inexorably - change not only our attitudes and beliefs, but our behaviors. A mere 100 years ago Jules Verne was the only man alive who believed man could go to the moon; now everyone does. As John Lennon might suggest to us all, imagine a day when everyone in world believes suicide can be prevented. Just imagine…

To our e newsletter readers: This is our first edition… please tell us what you think. Suggestions are welcomed.

The Staff and Faculty of the QPR Institute

QPR Institute e Newsletter Volume II
QPR Institute e Newsletter Volume III
QPR Institute e Newsletter Volume IV

The QPR Institute
P.O. Box 2867
Spokane, WA 99220
e-mail: qinstitute@qwestoffice.net
www.qprinstitute.com
Phone: 888-726-7926

In this issue: brief news items and a review of the Institute of Medicine's Reducing Suicide: A National Imperative, 2002.
Dr. Quinnett’s Counseling Suicidal People: A Therapy of Hope, is now available from our bookstore in a home study format for 8 hours of National Board of Certified Counselor continuing education. A reviewer said, “This is simply the best no-nonsense guide I have ever read to help one understand and form a collaborative, working relationship with someone in suicidal despair.” Lanny Berman, Ph.D., Executive Director, American Association of Suicidology.	On March 1st mainland China opened its first suicide prevention hotline! To our new friends and colleagues in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong we wish the very best in their efforts to save lives. With 21% of the world’s population and suicide being the number one cause of death in young Chinese adults, it is projected China will lose more than 500,000 people to suicide each year by 2020 if effective suicide prevention efforts are not undertaken now. The staff and faculty of the QPR Institute are working with the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center to help develop distance learning, education and training programs and in adapting the QPR model for China.
The QPR on CD-ROM suicide prevention gatekeeper training program has been thoroughly tested and is now available through our web site. Reviews by experts and several hundred beta test participants have been excellent. We are building a data collection and data management system now to provide automatic evaluation and outcome reports to large institutions and employers. This new approach to teaching QPR is intended to get low-cost gatekeeper training into frontier and rural America and, conversely, into the hands of large employers where all employees and their families can receive suicide prevention training.
Book Review: IOM Reducing Suicide: A National Imperative, 2002 © Paul Quinnett, Ph.D. The long-awaited Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report on suicide prevention has arrived. The National Academies, and the IOM, represent America’s most authoritative voice on matters of science. Entitled, Reducing Suicide: a National Imperative (National Academies Press, 2002), and almost 500 pages in length, this text is not holiday reading fare. On the other hand, this compact, tightly written, evidence-based report has, in its own way, a compelling tale to tell. I read Reducing Suicide while flying from Seattle to Beijing and back. I was not bored. I learned more than I thought I would. I liked the book for several reasons. First, it is shorter than some in my collection and yet contains a great deal more of what is relevant to preventing suicide than most. Second, a burdened reader like everyone else, I appreciated the way the authors and editors used short, declarative English sentences powered by active verbs. Third, the book begins with the following quote from Goethe, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” Reducing Suicide is not so much a review of the literature, as a call to action. In this text a scattered scientific literature is carefully selected for relevance and punch and then marshaled in force to justify statements and bold recommendations at the end of each chapter. In addition to the distillation of science that leads to key recommendations for action, the text is peppered with carefully selected personal stories, excerpts, poems and quotations to balance the statistics with human experience. While numbers may be forgettable, human stories are not. The result is a heavily-referenced scientific text powered by that unmistakable passion shared by those of us working to save lives from suicide. As a lawyer might say about the evidence presented in this IOM report, most of the facts are “clear, cogent and convincing.” The tone is, “Let’s get going!” Yes, we need better surveillance of suicidal behaviors. Yes, we need more population-based research on the effects of everything from serotonin to sermons but, in fact, we know enough in some areas to proceed with vigor. Beyond the four primary broad recommendations for change, there are a host of findings and additional recommendations for action published in bold type at the end of each chapter. Some these recommendations will be easier to implement than others. Massive funding for population-based research carries one price tag; requiring a minimum suicide prevention curricula in our institutions of higher learning carries quite another. How much, for example, does it cost to provide a required lecture series on suicide risk and protective factors and evidence-based interventions for clinical trainees? Some of the recommendations could be initiated with minimal action by an enlightened leadership and a stroke of the regulatory pen. My hope for Reducing Suicide is not that many thousands will read it and be energized and motivated to sign up for a tour in the suicide prevention crusade, but that its very presence will create a lasting cognitive dissonance between what is and what can be. Out only a few months, its impact is already being felt. Suicide prevention leadership is downloading IOM findings and recommendations into everything from grant applications to organizational goals. For those pioneers heading into the uncharted territory of suicide prevention, here is a map and compass. As the IOM message that lives can be saved seeps into our culture, our films, our public health messages, our sermons and standards of clinical practice, I believe a fundamental change in our how we deal with suicide in America will overtake our culture. Scientific evidence does - eventually and inexorably - change not only our attitudes and beliefs, but our behaviors. A mere 100 years ago Jules Verne was the only man alive who believed man could go to the moon; now everyone does. As John Lennon might suggest to us all, imagine a day when everyone in world believes suicide can be prevented. Just imagine… To our e newsletter readers: This is our first edition… please tell us what you think. Suggestions are welcomed. The Staff and Faculty of the QPR Institute