Transcription
0:00:00
Every third Wednesday of the month we get to visit with the folks from McCall Behavioral Health Network. This is a really, really important month because September is Suicide Prevention Month. Our guest this time is Donna Bielefeld and she’s with the Prevention Department at McCall coordinating the mental health awareness trainings. Good morning Donna.
0:00:27
Good morning Dale. Welcome to the program.
0:00:29
Glad to have you. Thank you for having me.
0:00:30
So you’ve been with McCall for a couple of years now. Couple of years now doing this, yeah. And you do the trainings, and it’s something called QPR. What is that?
0:00:41
QPR is Question, Persuade, and Refer. So we’re teaching people how to ask the question, persuading someone to keep themselves alive, and referring them for services.
0:00:51
So you train people how to do this. We’ve had a lot of interviews with the folks from McCall and when folks are in mental strife, I guess that’s the first thing. You’ve got to find the place where they’re coming from.
0:01:04
Yes, exactly. We go out into the community actually and do these trainings for free so that we can get people to recognize when someone is having a mental health issue and it could relate to something like taking their life by suicide. That hopefully people will recognize all the signs and symptoms or some.
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It doesn’t get headline news a lot, but when it does, some of the statistics are pretty sobering right now with this problem.
0:01:34
It’s definitely a problem. Each year, we have statistics that come up on our slides, actually. And the recent statistics for 2023 is that there were 50,000 people that took their lives by suicide in the country. Wow. Yeah.
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It’s a high number, and it’s a number we’d like to see decrease.
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How do you even begin that conversation? You know, I’m reminded, speaking of just headlines, John Bon Jovi, who a lot of people know is a good humanitarian anyway. They were, I’m sure you know the story, they were filming a video on a Tennessee bridge and he and a staffer were walking and they noticed a woman on the other side of the safety fencing looking like she was contemplating suicide.
0:02:16
And they talked her back. They did. And that headline this month is really well placed.
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Yeah, that was quite impactful. The conversation is not one that’s easy to start and we recommend just asking the question. Right. And if you feel like you can’t ask that question by yourself, try to find some support that will help you ask that question. But it’s not an easy thing to go to someone and say, are you considering taking your life by suicide? Or are you very unhappy? That’s another way that people will ask that question.
0:02:51
Why does this matter so deeply to you? It’s obviously something you’re invested in.
0:02:55
So I did not expect to come into this line of work, but my first EMS call was someone close to our family who took their life by suicide. And that was quite a difficult call for, you know, first getting done with an EMR and going out to a call and having that happen. So yeah, I’m passionate about it and that’s got a big part of it.
0:03:22
You know, it seems the most natural question that comes from that revelation that you just shared with us is, why didn’t I see this coming? Yeah. Why didn’t I see the signs?
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Yeah. I mean, how do we work from that to a place to where we can be effective in prevention?
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Well, and back in that time, we didn’t do these kinds of trainings. You know, we don’t, suicide is not something that a lot of people have wanted to talk about. And Suicide Awareness Month is definitely bringing it
0:03:50
more and more into the limelight. I believe they just had a Suicide Awareness Walks, and you know, those things are really impactful. And if I can get this training out to more and more people, so that they can recognize those signs, that’s a bonus.
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So is the training for lay people?
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Training is for everyone.
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Okay, because I want to differentiate between your fellow colleagues at McCall BHN and the folks in the general public who have an interest in this.
0:04:17
Yes, everyone in our agency takes this training. And so we can go out to, we go out and do it for our agency, we will go anywhere in the northwest corner and do this training. It is a SAMHSA based training so it’s free. I will come out and discuss what we would do ahead of time with people and we pretty much go anywhere. We’re actually going to Cornwall next Thursday. The Cornwall Library has us coming in to do a training.
0:04:47
So we’re out there, we’re posting them on our website, and we’re just really trying to get more and more people to pull us in, call us. You know, if you need help, call McCall, and they’ll get you to me, and I will set you up for the training.
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I’ll train three people.
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You’ve been doing this for a lot of years, right?
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Couple of years.
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Do you find when people do take the training that they have a backstory like yours?
0:05:12
Yes, yes, we have a couple of people. That is your motivation? Yes, that is definitely the motivation. I did a training in Harwinton a couple years ago right at the beginning of this and we had a couple people who were concerned about a family member and they came in and took the training. Is it done, you schedule it with the individuals, it is regular intervals, how do we get this training out there?
0:05:32
we try to offer a group training and we can schedule that pretty much anywhere. We have people register through a pre-survey that we offer, and we have a QR code that goes out there, or people can contact me and I’ll get them signed up for it. But we’ve gone out to many different agencies and done this. We’ve done Washington Ambulance, we’ve done a variety of different places.
0:05:56
I’ve done it for Harwinton Ambulance where I’m a member, and we’ll just offer a community training, you know, in Harwinton or at different agencies in Torrington. The chambers let us use their building on several occasions to offer a community training.
0:06:12
Our guest this time, Donna Bielefield, she’s with the Prevention Department of McCall Behavioral Health Network, and she coordinates the mental health awareness trainings including QPR, which is question, persuade, refer. So that is a process that that wisdom is imparted during the training. How long does the training take? Is it a one-day session or several days?
0:06:32
QPR is an hour-long session. Okay. And it can go a little bit longer, especially if it gets personal for some folks. Yeah. We do recommend that folks not take that training if they have recently lost someone by suicide. We want to get the information to you, but if it’s something new, we want to give you a chance to heal and have some calmness in your life, hopefully, before you come to take that.
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Be emotionally in the right place.
0:07:03
Yes, exactly.
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Final message, if there’s someone out there who’s worried about a loved one or somebody who’s worried about or someone who is maybe in this difficult place where they’re contemplating suicide, just a message for them in this very important month.
0:07:15
Message would be if you’re really that worried call 988. 988 is the key number for people who are considering taking their lives. Are you worried about someone? It deals with vets. It will help you find support for LGBTQ, for youth. So I always recommend go right to 988.
0:07:40
And finally, a number for McCall Behavioral Health Network. Of course, the website is mccallbhn.org, but all that information is there, too.
0:07:48
It is. Absolutely. We have our own little section on the McCall website, so definitely let us know and we will come out and give you a hand.
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Donna, thanks for being our guest, and we hope that if there’s folks out there that need to hear this, that they hear and they act on it.
0:08:02
Thank you.
0:08:03
I appreciate it. With that, coming up on 8:30, we’ll go ahead and head straight to the newsroom, get your bottom hour update. bottom hour update. Good morning, Jeff.