Support Provided by The Office of Suicide Prevention 

Who are "Gatekeepers"?
In suicide prevention, "Gatekeepers" are those people who first come into contact with a person at risk of suicide. The role of Gatekeepers is to identify and appropriately respond to people at risk of suicide and to consult with, and refer people at risk to other services or professionals. Professional Gatekeepers, such as mental health professionals, may also be required to conduct risk assessments as part of their role. As of May 2010, 110 people have been trained as gatekeepers in Eagle County.

What is Gatekeeper Training?
Gatekeeper training is based on the premise that individuals at risk of suicide come into contact with a range of community people who have the capacity to direct them towards help (Toumbourou et. al, 2000). The purpose of gatekeeper training is not to train people to act as counselors but rather to raise awareness of people at risk and refer for professional treatment. This linkage to professional help is fundamental to the success of gatekeeper training as a suicide prevention strategy. Research has found that gatekeeper training results in a stable and significant increase in participant's readiness to intervene with a person at risk. Three levels of gatekeeper training ranging from 1 hour to 3 hours to two days will be offered in Eagle County.

Suicide Alertness for Everyone (safeTALK) is a 3 hour training program that teaches participants to recognize persons that might be having thoughts of suicide and to connect them with community resources trained in suicide intervention. The ‘safe' of safeTALK stands for ‘suicide alertness for everyone.' The TALK letters stand for the practice actions that one does to help those with thoughts of suicide: Tell, Ask, Listen, and KeepSafe. This training was developed by LivingWorks Education. www.livingworks.net

ERYC will offer four safeTALK trainings for groups of 10-15 participants. These will be scheduled starting in June 2010. Please contact ERYC at 949-9250 if your interested in taking or hosting a safeTALK training.

QPR Suicide Triage Training is a one hour web-based course. QPR stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer, it's an emergency mental health intervention that teaches lay and professional Gatekeepers to recognize and respond positively to suicide warning signs and behaviors. QPR is theory based; it recognizes that even socially isolated suicidal individuals have contact with potential rescuers. QPR reaches out to high-risk people within their own environments and does not require suicidal people to ask for help. www.qprinstitute.com 

If interested in taking this training, please contact The ERYC at 949-9250.

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) is a two-day, two-trainer workshop designed for members of all care-giving groups. The emphasis is on teaching suicide first-aid to help a person at risk stay safe and seek further help as needed. Participants learn to use a suicide intervention model to identify persons with thoughts of suicide, develop a safe plan based upon a review of risk, be prepared to follow-up, and become involved in suicide-safer community networks. This training was also developed by LivingWorks Education. www.livingworks.net

The ASIST training will be held in September 8-9 2010. This training can accommodate 30-35 people. If interested, please contact Meredith Van Ness at The ERYC 949-9250 to sign up.

"I attended the 2-day ASIST Training this year and thought it was spectacular. I run a counseling center, but I am not myself a counselor, so I went to this program as a lay person who wanted to know what to do in my day-to-day life when I encounter someone who may be thinking about taking his/her own life. People from all walks of life attended this 2-day training - counselors, community leaders, pastors, EMTs, lay persons. All of us walked away with knowledge and the self-confidence that we had the tools to intervene if called to do so. Probably the best part of the training was the amount of role playing we were able to do, and in this way, we were able to incorporate the teaching into our own personalities and words, thus making it readily accessible if at some future point, we needed to apply the skills we had learned." - Elizabeth Myers, Samaritan Center of the Rockies.

For More Resources check out:

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_teen.htm

A collaborative effort of The Eagle River Youth Coalition, The Eagle County Volunteer Center, & The Youth Foundation

We would like to congratulate and welcome our 2009-2010 members!

The Youth Leaders Council's mission is to provide positive leadership to the youth of the Eagle County community with respect, commitment, and compassion through service-learning projects.

2009-2010 Tenatative Schedule

October

• Meetings
  • Oct. 14
    • Introductions
    • Orientation
    • Leadership pre-test
    • Get-to-know-you games
  • Oct. 28
    • Retreat planning
    • YLC Mentors

November

• Retreat- Nov. 6-7
  • Leadership skills
  • Teambuilding- Meet the Wilderness
  • Intro to six elements of leadership-focus on values
  • Planning for Day in the Life

• Meetings
  • Nov. 4 (if needed)
    • Finish retreat planning
  • Nov. 18
    • Day in the Life activity

December

• Meeting
  • Dec. 9
    • River of Life Activity
    • Reflect on Day in the Life
    • Plan holiday dinner

January

• Meetings:
  • Jan. 13
    • Continue River of Life
    • Leadership activity/ Matt Teeters-speaker
  • Jan 27
    • Continue River of Life
• Possible trip to Denver (January or February, depending on weather)
  • Service-learning project
  • See the capitol and downtown area

February

• Meetings
  • Feb 10
    • Begin Read Across America Day planning
  • Feb 24
    • Finish planning for Read Across America Day

March

• Read Across America Day-March 2
• Meetings
  • March 9
    • Reflect on RAAD
  • March 23
    • GYSD planning

April

• Meetings:
  •  April 7
  • April 21-Leadership Post-test
• GYSD
• Youth Summit

May

• End of year party

June

July

• Summer service project

 

Young people make better choices

Take a moment and think about how you’ve made change happen in your life. The first step is to eliminate perceptions holding you back, and once you embrace the reality of the situation then you can make a decision to motivate positive change in your life. This is the concept behind the Social Norms approach of positive message promotion, which aims to normalize people’s perceptions of behavior and attitudes.

Youth behaviors and attitudes are influenced by perceptions of what they believe to be the “norm”. The problem is most people misperceive what their peers are doing and are more likely to engage in negative behaviors because of the perception that “everyone is doing it”. For example, if someone believes most of their peers are drinking alcohol, than they are more likely to drink alcohol themselves instead of making a decision about what is right for them.

The goal of a social norms intervention is to show youth what the “norm” behaviors actually are based on what the young people said. Accurate perceptions are shown to promote healthy behaviors. The ERYC administers a biannual survey to all public high school students in Eagle County to find out what they’re feeling and doing. This data is then evaluated, and The ERYC markets the positive norms (behaviors and attitudes) of youth with the You Told Us campaign.

Messages via posters are put up in the high schools, throughout the community, as advertisements in the newspaper, on the radio, and featured in movie slides. The more the high school students see the messages, the more likely their perceptions start to change about what everyone is actually doing.

To find out more about social norms, which is a best practice approach based on science and research, please visit “The National Social Norms Institute” at www.socialnorms.org. To learn about successful interventions and see other examples, visit “Most of Us” at www.mostofus.org.

“The Positive Youth Development Approach understands that all young people need support, guidance, and opportunities during adolescence. It also looks toward creating supportive communities for all young people and at the same time, engaging youth to contribute to the well-being of the larger community.”

--The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children & Families.

The members of The Eagle River Youth Coalition follow the Positive Youth Development approach of building on the strengths of young people instead of focusing on their weaknesses. This is accomplished is through the framework of the 40 Developmental Assets. “The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets® are common sense, positive experiences and qualities that help influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible adults.”

To find out more go to www.search-institute.org/assets

Positive Youth Development resources:

• Helping America's Youth
• Positive Youth Development in the US
• NCSL Positive Youth Development
• Act For Youth
• U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services
• National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth
• Girl Scouts of America