USA Health highlights resources and awareness during Suicide Prevention Month
The Spiritual Health and Counseling Department is working to strengthen its H2O Wellness Partners program to help employees recognize when a colleague may need help, respond to a potential mental health crisis and connect them with appropriate resources.
September is Suicide Prevention Month, so USA Health Spiritual Health and Counseling is committed to offering resources and raising awareness.
Chaplains, Spiritual Health and Counseling staff, chaplain interns with the Community Chaplain Network/CPEI and Lori Cox, RN, with Resonate Together of Honolulu, Hawaii, recently distributed hundreds of suicide prevention, awareness and 988 resources at University Hospital, Children’s & Women’s Hospital, Providence Hospital and Mitchell Cancer Institute.
The department also is encouraging employees to learn the warning signs that someone may be struggling and become familiar with resources that can provide support. Other departments are also conducting outreach efforts by joining community talks and taking part in media interviews to raise awareness about how to help.
Another way USA Health is strengthening those efforts is through its H2O Wellness Partners program. The initiative equips employees with tools to recognize when a colleague may need help, respond to a potential mental health crisis, and connect them with appropriate resources.
Through the program, 35 USA Health employees have completed QPR suicide prevention training with Laury Rowlands of Lifelines Counseling Services. QPR stands for question, persuade and refer, and these three steps are designed to help someone in crisis and direct them to appropriate care.
H2O Wellness Partner training sessions will be offered Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 10 a.m. in the Children’s & Women’s Hospital Panda Cares Room and at 2 p.m. in the University Hospital Cafe Conference Room.
Employees interested in becoming an H2O Wellness Partner can email Chaplain Kim Crawford Meeks at [email protected] to sign up.
The goal is to have Wellness Partners throughout USA Health who can share coping resources during department huddles, make wellness materials available, help colleagues build personal coping toolkits and connect employees with spiritual and emotional support available through USA Health and the community.
