Youth Connections Coalition > Resources > Mental Health > Suicide Prevention & Intervention

Suicide Prevention & Intervention

QPR (Question Persuade, and Refer)

QPR (Question Persuade, and Refer) are three simple steps that anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide. Just as people are trained in CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver help save thousands of lives each year, people trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of suicide crisis and how to question, persuade, and refer someone to help. Each year thousands of Americans, like you, are saying “YES” to saving the life of a friend, colleague, sibling, or neighbor. QPR training is available in Helena by trained providers. To locate the next available class, call the local NAMI office at (406) 443-7871

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If you suspect someone to be suicidal, CALL 911 and/or take the child to the nearest hospital. In Helena, that is St. Peter’s Hospital.

Suicide is scary, but with Montana consistently having some of the highest suicide rates in the nation, it is a conversation we cannot avoid. While some suicides occur without any outward warning, most people who are suicidal do give warnings. Prevent the suicide of loved ones by learning to recognize the signs of someone at risk, taking those signs seriously and knowing how to respond to them. Warning signs of suicide include:

  • Observable signs of serious depression:
    • Unrelenting low mood
    • Increased alcohol and/or other drug use
    • Pessimism
    • Hopelessness
    • Desperation
    • Anxiety, psychic pain and inner tension
    • Withdrawal
    • Sleep problems
  • Recent impulsiveness and taking unnecessary risks
  • Threatening suicide or expressing a strong wish to die
  • Making a plan:
    • Giving away prized possessions
    • Unexpected rage or anger
    • Sudden or impulsive purchase of a firearm
    • Obtaining other means of killing oneself such as poisons or medications

Support and Help is Just a Phone Call Away! Call Montana’s Suicide Prevention Hotline at 988.

The emotional crises that usually precede suicide are often recognizable and treatable. Although most depressed people are not suicidal, most suicidal people are depressed. Serious depression can be manifested in obvious sadness, but often it is rather expressed as a loss of pleasure or withdrawal from activities that had been enjoyable. One can help prevent suicide through early recognition and treatment of depression and other psychiatric illnesses.