QPR for Aged Care (Eldercare) Workers

This training program addresses suicide prevention among older adults and elders. After presenting expert foundation brief lectures on older adult suicide risk, the QPR Gatekeeper Training for Suicide Prevention is presented, together with best-practice screening questions that those providing care to older adults may use to detect what potentially unknown risk for suicidal behaviours.

As an approved adaptation of the NREPP-listed QPR Gatekeeper Training for Suicide Prevention training program, this course does not address comprehensive suicide risk assessment, risk formulation, or clinical decision making based upon a risk stratification determination.

This is not a train-the-trainer course, and thus does not include instructor guidelines, lesson plans, or student handouts.

Given the time constraints many eldercare workers are under to complete new training, this self-paced course is segmented into many brief learning modules. The course is open for a full year so that learners can log in and out of the course to complete modules as time is available. The training is available on any PC or mobile device.

International students please note

Suicide rates for QPR courses are US-specific. To determine suicide rates in your country, please visit the World Health Organisation at http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide_rates/en/.

As you will see, many of these reports are quite dated. If your country keeps such data but does not necessarily report to WHO, try Googling federal, state, or province name and "suicide rate." If you are teaching suicide prevention courses you will need this data; the more local the data the better. But remember that suicide rates need 5 to 10 year horizons to be of much value as to interpreting any changes in trend lines.

Suicide rates among elders are unacceptably high. The need for prevention is great. Multiple surveys have shown a training deficit among those who work with at-risk populations. This training program is intended to address the gap between research and practice by introducing participants to a range of evidence-based best practices.

In this course you will learn QPR, one of the most widely taught suicide prevention gatekeeper training programs in the world.

Universal Intervention

While the QPR intervention was developed specifically to detect and respond to persons emitting suicide warning signs, QPR has also been more widely applied as a universal intervention for anyone who may be experiencing emotional distress. It has been suggested by independent researchers and federal leadership that originally funded and conducted QPR studies, that the QPR intervention could be useful in a much broader application, and not just for the detection of persons at risk for suicide.

Thus, by learning QPR and applying this screening system in your work, you will likely screen and detect many elders who are false positives (not suicidal), but still in need of assistance, assessment, and perhaps intervention and treatment. When QPR is applied to distressed elders with informed compassion and understanding, the intervention becomes useful for the detection of a wide range of "troubled" behaviour, e.g., eating disturbances, sleep problems, and elder abuse.

This training is not a substitute for a university degree in counselling or other mental health profession, nor can it provide the face-to-face supervised experience those in the helping professions are provided in the course of their professional career development. The program does not teach suicide risk assessment skills. Suicide risk assessment training is provided in other QPR Institute programs.

• Participants must be at least 18 years of age
• If employed by, or volunteering for, an organisation, participants agree to accept all expectations and employment rules of their parent organisation. The QPR Institute does not vet or otherwise qualify students for this course.

Modularized in a rich mix of text, video, voice-over PowerPoint™ lectures, interactive practice sessions, and other state-of-the-art e-learning technologies, the QPR for Eldercare Workers certificate awarded at the end of the program requires completing all online modules and passing required knowledge quizzes. Additional classroom practice sessions and downloadable role-plays with instructions are strongly recommended.

Goals and Objectives

Participants completing this program should be able to:

• Understand suicide, including older adult suicide, as a major public health problem
• Understand the major risk factors for late-life psychiatric problems and suicide
• Understand the common myths and facts surrounding suicide
• Identify unique verbal, behavioral, and situational suicide warning signs
• Recognize at least three elder suicide warning signs
• Recognize at least three risk factors for older adult suicide
• Recognize at least three protective factors against suicide for older adults
• Know how to engage and assist a suicidal older adult
• Use the QPR suicide screen with other paper-and-pencil screening and brief assessment tools, e.g., the PHQ-9, Geriatric Suicide Ideation Scale.
• Remove or limit access to the means of suicide
• Be familiar with "hand off" procedures to alert other staff of elders at risk for suicide
• Create a collaborative safety plan which includes follow-up care, peer support, and emergency numbers
• Know what crisis materials, phone numbers, and family information to provide when the patient arrives at a hospital or other point of care site
• Be familiar with evidence-based treatments that specifically target suicidal behavior in elders
• Document decisions regarding the care and referral of elders screened positive for suicide ideation or attempts

Course features:

• Interactive Practice Challenges
• Videos
• Audio
• Thought Challenges
• Interactive Quizzes
• Surveys
• Rich Content
• Taught by an expert in suicide prevention and eldercare