Question. Persuade. Refer.
It’s the QPR Institute — a 20-year-old, Spokane-based suicide prevention organization.
It’s also a chronological set of guidelines.
“‘How do I know I need to ask the question?’ That’s the Q,” said Dr. Sharon Fritz, who works at the Counseling and Testing Center (CTC) and heads QPR training at the University of Idaho. “Then we talk about how we’ll ask the question. After that, ‘how will I persuade them to get help?’ and finally, ‘where do I refer them to?’”
Fritz received a grant funding suicide prevention training at UI five years ago. Since then, the QPR program has been offered to students, faculty and staff at no cost.
It’s not mandatory for students.
According to Brian Quinnett, a QPR Master Trainer, National Training Director and son of the group’s founder and CEO, about 97 percent of people who take the training report back, “That’ll help me help someone.”
However, the NCAA filed a report on the subject last summer, spurring athletic departments at universities across the nation to institute mental health and suicide prevention programs.
In the last year, it has become an obligatory lesson among student athletes. Rob Spear, Idaho’s athletic director who was put on paid administrative leave, has also encouraged all coaches and athletics staff to take the online portion. As of now, several UI teams and coaches have participated in either the hands-on or online trainings.
“It’s great information for everybody to have,” said Jon Newlee, head coach of Idaho’s women’s basketball team. “It really shows you how to be aware of signs that you maybe wouldn’t normally think about … I’m glad these programs are in place to make people more aware and prevent needless tragedies here and around the country.”
Now, 194 student athletes have received the training, and it’ll be taken annually in order to catch new student athletes up, according to Fritz. The program is evidenced-based, meaning “using the best available research and data throughout the process of planning and implementing your suicide prevention efforts,” according to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center.
In a nutshell, the one-hour program exhibits practicality. Quinnett said it promotes simple training and action steps to save lives and educates enrollees on risk factors and warning signs, while fleshing out myths and misconceptions relating to suicide and mental health.
Among those misconceptions are that people struggling with mental health are already receiving help, which Fritz said is generally not true. Other common, but generally false notions are that discussing suicide prevention “plants the seed,” and people expressing suicidal thoughts or action are not prone to receiving help.
“We’re saying that there’s lots we can do to stop it,” Fritz said. “It really reaches out and touches people. Every presentation I give on QPR, someone stays after to talk to me about a friend, themselves, or something. To me, that’s the cat’s meow because it lets me get out and do some broader prevention work.”
According to a 2016 US National Institutes of Health study, about 40 percent of Division I athletic departments feature mental health clinicians. The number has been steadily rising as the focus on student-athlete mental health awareness has been rising. At UI, Fritz acts as the CTC liaison for the athletics department.
“We’re trying to reach out to different populations so that (CTC) has some presence, and so students can get to know the counseling center and get to know me,” Fritz said. “So hopefully they’ll have an easier time accessing services.”
Programs like QPR are also meant to destigmatize mental health issues among athletes, according to both Fritz and Brian Hainline, the NCAA’s first chief medical officer.
“The stereotype is that student-athletes are tough somehow or more put together than others,” Hainline said, quoted in a 2017 article in The Ringer. “No. People are people.”
Physical and academic soundness have long been focuses of athletic departments, but Fritz said mental health awareness has been overlooked, especially in the past. Physical and mental solidity are on the “same par,” and both are treatable.
Athletes, along with all students, can experience stressors — expectations to perform, depression and anxieties — but there is always someone to turn to, and admitting the need for help is nothing to be ashamed of.
“I think it’s important to recognize: life is more stressful,” Fritz said. “There are more demands on us and higher expectations, which means more people are struggling with mental health.
“We’re unique on campus in that we offer free and confidential counseling services. So, people can know it’s treatable, they know there’s help … We don’t have to struggle with mental health and mental illness. There’s good help.”
UI offers extensive resources, including the Counseling and Testing Center and Vandal Care Report. Among those, the university also features its own hotline, which affords trained local and personal specialists, so students coping with mental health issues can seek nearby aid, instead of at the national level.
As one UI campaign put it: “There is hope, there is help.”
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255
UI after-hours hotline: 208-885-6716
Colton Clark can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @coltonclark95