SeniorCare recently partnered with the Samaritans of Merrimack Valley to provide training in “Suicide Prevention for Older Adults” to 86 participants, including SeniorCare staff, volunteers, and partners. Participants gained knowledge about suicide prevalence, myths attached to suicide, risk factor and warning sign recognition, and how to speak to someone who may be at risk. Resources to help those at risk were provided.
A few comments from training participants:
“The suicide prevention training was excellent. Suicide is obviously not an easy topic to think about or to discuss but the person leading the training was so great, they were very informative and also sensitive to the topic, which can be triggering. And they also gave generous space to engage with our comments and questions along with feedback. I learned a lot, so thank you!”
“The training had a great flow and was easy to follow. I learned more about recognizing warning signs and thought more about what we could do for prevention strategies.”
“Thank you for providing such an informative and thoughtful Suicide Prevention training for the SeniorCare community. Such an important topic for all of us to understand and learning more about the risk factors for suicide, statistics of suicide in older adults and ways to talk with those that are struggling with ideas of self-harm was really, really meaningful.”