Prevention Class Could Save A Life

The night before 23-year-old Dean Beaudry hanged himself in his sister’s garage, he talked with his mother Jackie on the telephone.

“I knew he was having problems. I encouraged him to get counseling,” says Jackie Beaudry, an employee of Washington Water Power. “I asked him if he was going to harm himself, but I did it the wrong way.”

Her son died almost three and half years ago. Afterward, Beaudry educated herself about suicide and joined a local support group. Now she volunteers for the Spokane County Suicide Prevention Task Force. The coalition organizes suicide prevention training as well as outreach programs targeting teenagers, senior citizens and other groups particularly susceptible to suicide.

Last Thursday marked the first in a series of suicide prevention training sessions, called QPR (Question, Persuade and Refer), sponsored by the Spokane County Health District. The district plans to hold three more QPR training sessions before the end of August.

“In one hour people are trained about what the warning signs are and how to question someone about suicide,” says Keely Kalama-Lakey, QPR training coordinator for Greentree Behavioral Health. She also sits on the Suicide Prevention Task Force. Kalama-Lakey explains that people who attend QPR training learn how to encourage a suicidal person to get help and how to refer that person to resources in the community.

Task force members agree that everyone in the community should consider attending QPR suicide prevention training. “Suicide prevention is a cooperative effort,” says Kalama-Lakey. “The point of the training is that it reaches all members of the community.”

If you’d like to attend QPR suicide prevention training sponsored by the Spokane County Health District, call 324-1596. To learn how to become a QPR suicide prevention trainer, call 458-7471. Or, if you or someone you know is considering suicide, call First Call For Help, a crisis intervention and community information hot line with help available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That number is 838-4428.

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MEMO: Created in support of the Spokane County Health Improvement Partnership (HIP), Discoveries highlights people working to improve community health and well-being. If you have a discovery that deserves recognition, call Elana Jefferson at 459-5419. To get involved with HIP, call 482-2557.