Linton Schools, Hamilton Center, Inc. Partner to Educate Students on Suicide Warning Signs

LINTON – Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for United States teenagers, according to the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention, and the Linton-Stockton School Corporation recently teamed with Hamilton Center, Inc. to teach its students about potential “Signs of Suicide.”

HCI staff members recently completed training sessions for all LSSC students in grades 5-12 and all staff in the Signs of Suicide prevention program utilizing techniques from Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR).

Heather Harris, LSSC school social worker, learned of Hamilton Center’s QPR training after receiving another grant from the same geographic region.

“I actually had applied for a grant a few years ago through Monroe County for substance abuse prevention programming,” Harris said, noting she successfully received $20,000 in funding for the Ripple Effects program. “Since we had been using that Ripple Effects programming, which was only for middle school kids, someone asked me if I was aware that our county is involved and included in this region with the Hamilton Center.”

Harris was told there was another grant opportunity through the Division of Mental Health and Addiction [DMHA] which could provide a multitude of other services.

Harris connected with Erika McKinney, HCI’s Director of School Services, and Meghan Creech, the corporation’s Chief of Utility Services, and the partnership was born.

“It was received very well, possibly because our kids are exposed a little bit more to that language and that material because of the clubs we already have in our school,” Harris said. “We already talked about it a lot with the clubs and try to destigmatize it here.”

Harris said high school students have a club called Bring Change to Mind which touches upon the topic of mental health but was unable to find any programs for middle school students.

“They are struggling too,” Harris said. “As a result of that, we formed a middle school club. This training will allow everyone, not just people in the clubs, to be aware of the warning signs of suicide.”

Fortunately, Harris does not know of any Linton students who have died by suicide – and she would like to keep it that way.

“There have been four young people at other schools near us die by suicide that we know about,” she said.

“Those are just the ones that are publicized that our kids know about and hear about on the news or because it is people they know from sports or some other activity.”

The SOS training program involves role-playing scenarios in which participants act out situations, with the observers determining and discussing the key indicators of a mental health issue.

Students learn to ACT in order to help other students:

– Acknowledge that they are seeing signs of depression or suicide in yourself or a friend and that it is serious.
– Let a friend know how much you Care about them and that you are concerned that they need help.
– Tell a trusted adult that you are worried about yourself or a friend.

Linton students have several different ways in which they can report their concerns, and Harris said the number of referrals is predictably increasing after the SOS training.

“That’s probably happening because they know now what to look for,” she said. “Our teachers are good about noticing if something seems off with our kids and just sending an email either to myself or a member of the administration.”

LSSC has a Care Team that meets every two weeks to develop an action plan to make sure that kids at highest risk are checked on regularly.

Training will continue in other areas for LSSC students now that the topic of suicide warning signs has been covered. Last year, the corporation’s sixth- and seventh-grade students were trained on smoking and vaping prevention.

“Hopefully we can provide that training to our sixth-grade students every year moving forward,” Harris said. “I was trained my first year to be a trainer for the Catch My Breath program and I haven’t been able to do it yet. It is nice for Hamilton Center to be able to come and do that for us.”

For more information on HCI training opportunities, go to trainingourcommunity.org.