This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
Kentuckians who want to learn how to help prevent suicide can do so through a new free online suicide prevention training tool.
This training comes from University of Kentucky Healthcare and is called QPR, which means Question, Persuade and Refer. These words refer to the steps a person can take to help prevent suicide.
During this roughly hour-long training, UK says, people “learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis, how to respond to someone in crisis and where to refer someone in need of help.”
Julie Cerel, a suicidologist and professor in UK’s College of Social Work, said in a statement that “knowing how to ask if someone is thinking about suicide and getting a person at risk to the appropriate resources will help keep people alive.”
The training is free to anyone in the state and available here: https://kyqpr.ukhc.org/.
Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths by suicide increased in 2022 from 2021 levels. Someone died every 11 minutes in 2021 from suicide, and more than 12 million Americans thought about it.
RELATED: Kentucky calls to 988 suicide and crisis line increase by 23%
Overall, suicide rates were on the rise between 2000-2018, according to CDC data. The numbers dipped in 2020 but nearly reached the 2018 peak again by 2021. In 2021, at least 816 Kentuckians died by suicide.
For emergency help in suicide prevention or other mental health crises, call or text 988.
This article is republished under a Creative Commons license from Kentucky Lantern, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter.
Sarah Ladd is a Louisville-based journalist and Kentuckian. She has covered everything from crime to higher education. In 2020, she started reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and has covered health ever since.
