Above: Throughout September, SYFS has been making a focused effort to raise awareness and give the community tools/support to prevent suicides. (images cropped from flyers)
This Tuesday is the last day of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Southborough Youth & Family Services is offering two related free programs at the library that night.
The community can sign up to participate in a Suicide Prevention Training session. Or, you can join them for September’s “Shelf Help” Community Book Discussion.
QPR Suicide Prevention Training
Tuesday, September 30, 6:00 – 8:00 pm, upstairs
This is the last of the Mental Health Info Sessions/Workshops SYFS is offering this month:
Learn the QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) method to help recognize warning signs of suicide and connect individuals to help.
In a past year, SYFS wrote:
Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in America but when surveyed, 93% of Americans believe suicide can be prevented. (CDC, 2019) Luckily they are right: it is often and easily the most preventable cause of death.
The QPR Gatekeeper Training is considered a “program with evidence of effectiveness,” with data supporting its efficacy:
Not unlike CPR it teaches basic skills to help a person in crisis. In this 2-hour training, you are taught how to ask the suicide Question, how to Persuade a person to tell you more, and to seek help and Refer to outside help. It is offered in a small setting of no more than 12 participants to allow for time to ask lots of questions and try out newly learned skills through role-plays.
SYFS has pitched the beauty of the program as teaching skills valuable beyond suicide prevention. They can also be used to have conversations when you notice someone who isn’t suicidal struggling with emotional issues.
Shelf Help: Community Book Discussion
SYFS and the Southborough Library have teamed up on this revamped monthly book group.
The new format doesn’t require participants to pre-read the book to be part of the discussion. Plus, leading up to the event, registered participants will receive:
related resources—including articles, podcasts, and videos—to help engage with the topic from multiple perspectives.
The featured book for September is Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. SYFS promotes:
This novel explores family expectations, identity, and hidden struggles, directly connecting to themes of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.
The best selling novelist’s website describes it as:
A profoundly moving story of family, history, and the meaning of home. . . both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family, and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
The discussion will take place Tuesday, September 30th, 7:00 – 8:00 pm in the Southborough Library’s Eaton Room. To register to participate and get additional materials, click here. (SYFS and the Library will help participants who ask for help to borrow a copy of the book.)
Future meetings will also take place on Tuesdays from 7:00 – 8:00 pm, but not always in person:
- October 28th at the Library — Where to Draw the Line: How to Set Healthy Boundaries Every Day by Anne Katherine, M.A.
- November 25 over zoom — A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (a novel)
Anyone with questions or who needs accommodations can contact SYFS at 508-481-5676 or ebrideau@southboroughma.com.
