During the Illawarra Mercury’s Care to QPR: Question, Persuade, Refer campaign, a thousand free licenses were made available for people in the community to do QPR training.
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The QPR training is the latest online training module developed by experts to empower people to have direct conversations with someone they fear may be contemplating suicide.
The funding for those licenses was made available thanks to a $10,000 grant from the NSW Government thanks to NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Member for Keira Ryan Park.
More recently the Federal Government matched that grant thanks largely to the advocacy of Member for Whitlam Stephen Jones.via Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt.
That means there are 700 free licenses again now available for the people of this region to undertake the online QPR training course.
The course, which can be simply completed online, gives you the tools you need to become a beacon of hope in our community in the fight against suicide, which is still a major cause of death in our community.
The course helps you with what to say to somebody who you believe may be contemplating suicide, how to identify the signs and just as importantly, what not to say.
It helps you provide hope to people when they need it most.
On Tuesday, our national sporting team the Illawarra Hawks became the latest advocates for QPR.
With suicide statistics being dominated by men and often men who play sport, sporting clubs are a crucial link to combating the suicide rate.
Hopefully more sporting clubs and teams of all levels follow in the Hawks’ footsteps.
If you would like to secure one of the free QPR training licenses visit www.suicidepreventioncollaborative.org.au/QPR
If you’d like to talk to anyone about the issues raised in this article call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.
