QPR Gatekeeper Instructor Certification Training International Version

This course is available only to purchasers living outside of the United States and Canada, except as access is granted to currently licensed Certified QPR Instructors.

This Registered Best Practice interactive training program is designed to prepare trainers, educators, and any interested adult to teach the most widely taught suicide prevention gatekeeper training program in the world. The following text is from the official description of the QPR Gatekeeper Training Program for Suicide Prevention as published in the SPRC/AFSP Best Practice (BPR)Registry for Suicide Prevention available at: http://www2.sprc.org/sites/sprc.org/files/QPR_FactSheet.pdf.

BPR Registry Description

QPR stands for Question, Persuade and Refer, an emergency mental health gatekeeper training intervention that teaches lay and professional gatekeepers to recognize and respond positively to someone exhibiting suicide warning signs and behaviors. Like CPR, QPR uses a “chain of survival” approach in which the gatekeeper learns to recognize early suicide warning signs, Question their meaning to determine suicide intent or desire, Persuade the person to accept or seek help, and Refer the person to appropriate resources. The training is delivered in a standardized 1-2 hour multimedia format by certified QPR gatekeeper instructors. Certified instructors receive a minimum of eight hours of formal instruction, are certified for 3-year intervals, and are provided technical and web-based support, quarterly newsletters, and free program upgrades. QPR gatekeepers receive a QPR booklet and wallet card as a review and resource tool that includes local referral resources. QPR does not include suicide risk assessment training.

International students please note

Suicide rates for QPR courses are US-specific. To determine suicide rates in your country, please visit the World Health Organization at http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide_rates/en/ .

As you will see, many of these reports are quite dated. If your country keeps such data but does not necessarily report to WHO, try Googling federal, state, or province name and "suicide rate." If you are teaching suicide prevention courses you will need this data; the more local the data the better. But remember that suicide rates need 5 to 10 year horizons to be of much value as to interpreting any changes in trend lines.

QPR Booklet Royalties and License to Print

Certified QPR Instructors are obliged by their licensing agreement to provide a hard-copy QPR booklet and card to each person trained, or one booklet per family. Research shows substantial secondary readership and family and friend sharing and discussions follow training, thus enhancing opportunities to intervene and save lives.

Of the five key outcomes of QPR training, dissemination and sharing of training is one powerful outcome, with each person trained in QPR discussing their experience with up to five other people. Thus, for each person you train, you impact five others.

In the US and Canada these booklets and cards are purchased and shipped to QPR instructors, but shipping costs to other countries are prohibitive. Thus, we have elected to charge a small prepaid royalty for a license to print QPR booklets and cards in your own country. You may re-sell these booklets to recover costs, or create new revenue as book publishers do if you so choose. In the US, some QPR Instructors charge fees for their time, travel, and the booklets and cards.

We encourage you to design and produce your own booklet covers, co-brand the material, and create your own referral information for your area or country on the back pages.

Again, if a translation in your language is not available, we will work with you to secure the needed translations. A university-based translation would be best.

Program Objectives

After training, QPR participants should be able to:

1. Recognize someone at risk for suicide,
2. Intervene with those at risk; and,
3. Refer them to an appropriate resource.

Implementation Essentials

Training must be conducted by a certified QPR instructor. Training must include standardized PowerPoint slides, and distribution of the QPR Booklet and wallet card.

QPR was developed in a joint venture between Spokane Mental Health and the Department of Health, Spokane County, Washington. Materials were written and reviewed by public health and mental health experts and a brief training program was designed to teach gatekeepers knowledge and skills in the recognition and referral of at risk persons. Training materials are available in multiple languages and cultural adaptations.

Overview

This certification course trains Instructors in how to teach QPR for Suicide Prevention to their community. It is assumed they are prepared and sufficiently experienced to stand before small audiences and deliver a short training program.

Participants first learn about the scope of the problem of suicide, the role "Gatekeepers" can play in their communities, and about the nature of suicidal communications, what forms these communications take, and how they may be used as the stimulus for a QPR intervention.

To gain perspective, participants are introduced to the history of suicide, suicide prevention and the spectrum of modern day public health suicide prevention education efforts. The history, background and research support for QPR are reviewed.

After learning how to teach the core QPR curriculum using an official PowerPoint slide deck and how to answer audience questions, participants then learn to market QPR, set up training programs, and how target potential Gatekeepers in their communities.

Participants also learn to deal with pent up audience demand to talk about suicide, how to help with survivor issues, and how to make immediate interventions and referrals. Each participant has the opportunity for individual rehearsal and practice through downloadable role-plays or with interactions with an online instructor.

Note:

There is an additional optional fee for access to an online QPR Master Trainer.

Course Objectives:

• To understand the nature, range and importance of suicidal communications and their importance in preventing suicide.
• To review and understand the groups at greatest risk of suicide and why QPR can work for them.
• To train participants to teach QPR Gatekeeper Training for Suicide Prevention.
• To gain a historical perspective about suicide prevention and how QPR fits into national efforts.
• To acquire specific knowledge about how audiences may respond to the QPR message and how to react in a helpful manner.
• To learn how to effectively promote suicide prevention in their own communities.
• To gain the competence and confidence to teach others how to save lives and help prevent suicidal behaviors.

The training program covers:

• Suicide and suicide prevention in history
• Gatekeeper training; how, why and the research
• New and promising approaches to suicide prevention
• Targeting prevention education efforts
• Review of the QPR video
• Teaching QPR
• Facilitating role plays
• Handling questions from audiences
• National and local resources and how to use them
• Expanding QPR to other community prevention efforts
• Completion of training evaluations
• Orientation to the national and international QPR network and QPR Institute
• Awarding of three year Instructor Certificates

Training and materials included:

• Ten or more hours of training
• A QPR Instructor’s Manual (download and print)
• Detailed teaching information
• Access to the Certified QPR Instructor resources web site, which includes several videos, teaching tools, and a variety of customized and approved teaching slides.
• License to print QPR booklets and QPR wallet cards (the print masters are emailed to the learner after earning the certificate to teach QPR)
• Use of the QPR brand
• E-version of the booklet, The Tender Leaves of Hope.
• Teaching tool kit (continuously updated) with information on issues related to suicide and its prevention.
• Two of Dr. Quinnett’s e-books: Suicide: The Forever Decision and Counseling Suicidal People: A Therapy of Hope
• E-mail and telephone access to the Institute's staff for consultations on QPR training
• Periodic blast emails and brief PowerPoint voice-over presentations
• Online marketing tools, U-Tube videos, and free program upgrades
• Optional personal listing and marketing for you as a Certified QPR Instructor. We refer groups in your area seeking training directly to you. You negotiate with them regarding availability, fees, venues, travel, etc.

Millions of suicide prevention gatekeepers needed!

Trained suicide prevention gatekeepers have been shown to be effective in the early identification, intervention, and referral of potentially suicidal people emitting suicide warning signs to those around them.

For suicidal people to be detected and helped before they make a suicide attempt, those around them - friends, family members, co-workers, fellow students or soldiers - must be trained to recognize suicide warning signs and how act quickly and boldly to intervene, offer hope, and accompany suicidal people to professionals for assessment and care.

We have a saying about gatekeepers, "We must train hundreds to save one, thousands to save hundreds, and millions to save thousands."

Only by training hundreds of thousands of QPR gatekeepers can we hope to make the early identification and referral of suicidal people routine. Once routine, like CPR is routine, we can then intervene when warning signs are present, refer, and begin treatment or counseling when needed. Only when millions are trained can we begin to restore hope to all who need it.

To accomplish this massive task, we need thousands of Certified QPR Instructors. As of this writing, and mostly in the United States, we are training roughly 200 new instructors per month.

By becoming certified to teach QPR in your community, city, province or country, you can join the ranks of our thousands of QPR instructors worldwide and begin training gatekeepers where you live.

The QPR Institute believes in the "big tent" philosophy that everyone can help prevent suicide. Therefore, we invite any willing adult to learn to teach QPR.

Like CPR, QPR instructors come from all walks of life: spiritual leaders, police officers, doctors, nurses, counselors, business people, lawyers, mental health professionals, college professors and others, including food service workers and bus drivers. Anyone can learn to teach others how to prevent suicide. Among our ranks of instructors are many who have lost a loved one to suicide and, through their training efforts, hope to help others avoid this terrible pain and suffering.

While a medical, health professional, or mental health background is helpful to teach QPR, it is not a requirement. Besides, we will teach you a great deal about what you need to know about the relationship of untreated mental illness and suicide -- more than many mental health professionals even know.

Program Aim

Our aim is simple: teach you how to teach others how to prevent suicide by using three simple steps and skills that all adults already know and have: How to Question, Persuade, and Refer someone who needs help.

We know what we will teach you to teach others will work. Why? Because our university-based colleagues have spent 20 years researching QPR to determine if it is safe and effective.

Bottom line? It is!

What this training program is not

This training is not a substitute for an advanced degree in the helping professions, nor can it provide the face-to-face supervised experience professionals may need to successfully demonstrate the teaching skills taught in this course.

• Participants must be at least 18 years of age
• If employed by, or volunteering for, an organization, participants agree to accept all expectations and employment rules of their parent organization. The QPR Institute does not vet or otherwise qualify students for this course.

Note:

Due to rapid developments in the delivery of QPR gatekeeper training online, as a Certified QPR Instructor you may have an opportunity to use your training and experience in what are called "blended" training programs. Basically, learners take basic QPR training online, and then meet with a Certified QPR Instructor (you) for an important follow-on question-and-answer period, skill rehearsal session/role-plays, crisis response and policy review, referral network development and other key elements to helping QPR training work as intended.

The QPR Institute is preparing to deliver QPR training to thousands of people online and we hope you will become part of the resource pool for face-to-face follow-on sessions.

The Training Program

Modularized in a rich mix of text, video, voice-over PowerPoint™ lectures, interactive practice sessions, and other state-of-the-art e-learning technologies, this instructor certification course is self-paced to suit the learner's schedule. The option of expert instructor time for consultation may be purchased at the time of registration. Role-play and practice sessions are downloadable and strongly recommended.

To earn the Certified QPR Instructor certificate, the learner must complete all modules and pass all quizzes.

The final exam, and licensing exam, must be passed to receive certification and to be listed among our certified instructors.

After completing this course and training 250 persons in 10 or more training groups, and if interested, the QPR Institute further trains and licenses "Master Trainers." Master QPR Trainers learn to train and certify other instructors, join the Institute's faculty, and, if qualified, become contract employees of the Institute. Those with clinical backgrounds may also learn to teach our advanced suicide risk assessment and risk management courses and, again, join our faculty and become contract employees.

Pricing

An international price schedule adjusted by World Bank economic Zones is published on our web site to determine the participant's fee for this course.

Volume purchases. Volume discounts are offered when an organization, university, or healthcare system desires to train more than one instructor. Please contact our training director for more information at bquinn@turbonet.com.

Each individual international participant certified is provided a license to translate, print, and sell these materials as part of the required elements of a QPR training event. For some, this "sale" of booklets and cards is designed to recover the cost of this training program and, if possible, create a profit to help expand suicide prevention programming for the instructor and his or her institution.

As one of the few major self-sustaining suicide prevention organizations in the world we believe two things: 1) preventing suicide is too important to be left to governments, and, 2) if you hope to change the world, start a business, or at least help sustain the one you work for.

Because gatekeeper training can save lives and help avert suicidal self-inflicted injuries that can costs thousands of dollars in emergency room and/or hospital medical care, your training has real value. If you choose to, charge for it. Many instructors do. With the assistance of the University of Idaho School of Business and Economics, the institute has made the business case (ROI-return on investment)for teaching QPR. At least in the United States, if a gatekeeper averts a single suicide-related hospital admission, roughly $20,000 is saved.

Per person with license to print: $795.00 USD
Per person without license to print (materials supplied in country): $595.00 USD

Large healthcare employers may be interested in our cloud-based Sustainable Systems Approach to Achieving Zero Suicide. For more information send an email to bquinn@turbonet.com or via our website. Thank you for helping to prevent suicide.