Family Counseling Center awarded Suicide Prevention grant

The Department of Mental Health recently awarded Family Counseling Center (FCC), a Suicide Prevention Services grant, to be coordinated by Director of Training and Staff Development, Shirleen Sando.

The grant covers eleven counties in Missouri including Butler, Carter, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Reynolds, Ripley, Scott, Stoddard, and Wayne, and will offer free community-based education and awareness programs and presentations as appropriate for schools, juvenile officers, law enforcement officers, primary health care providers, mental health care providers, emergency health care personnel, assisted living facilities, senior centers, veterans, clergy, churches, Employee Assistance Programs, and others who reside within the eleven counties, according to Sando.

Question, Persuade, and Refer training (QPR), is three simple steps that anyone can learn to help save a life, Sando noted.

Just as people trained in CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver help save thousands of lives each year, people trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade, and refer someone for help. Each year thousands of Americans are saying "Yes" to save the life of a friend, colleague, sibling, or neighbor, according to Sando.

FCC will be distributing a brochure to include a description of Suicide Prevention Resource Center services. This brochure will include a select and mail portion, which will include a list of suicide resources, fact sheets, signs, and symptoms of suicide materials that can be sent to any individual or agency at no cost.

To provide additional suicide prevention information to communities, FCC's prevention Web site will include the description of the service's Suicide Prevention Resource Center and programming available to individuals, schools, and youth service providers as well as links to local, state, and national suicide prevention resources such as survivor support groups, screening tools, and hotlines.

For additional information on the suicide prevention program contact Shirleen Sando at (573) 888-5925 extension 284, or e-mail shirleens@fccinc.org.

FCC is a community mental healthcare center serving Southeast Missouri since 1976. The organization is a Missouri private non-profit 501c3 corporation providing a full array of psychiatric, substance abuse, co-occurring disorders, and prevention services.