A free suicide prevention training will take place in Canby next month.
The three-hour seminar hosted by the Oregon Firearm Safety Coalition will train attendees in QPR, an emergency response technique that teaches ways to identify and respond to people who may be at risk for self-harm or experiencing suicidal ideation.
QPR, which stands for the three basic steps Question, Persuade and Refer, was partially inspired by the ways training in CPR and the Heimlich maneuver have helped civilians save thousands of lives in emergency health situations.
QPR consists of three life-saving skills: recognizing the warning signs of suicide, offering hope and getting help.
The training is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, December 3, at the Canby Public Library, 220 Northeast 2nd Avenue. Reserve your spot online here.
Despite a slight decrease in 2020, which officials linked to a new funding appropriation from the Legislature that year that focused on youth suicide prevention, Oregon’s suicide rate remains among the highest in the nation.
Oregon had the 13th-highest suicide rate in 2020, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. About 833 people died by suicide in the state that year.
It had ranked ninth the year before, when 906 Oregonians died by suicide, but saw a 14% drop in suicides among people ages 24 and younger in 2020, according to the state’s Youth Suicide Invention and Prevention Plan annual report.
It saw a drop from 118 youth deaths in 2019 to 102 deaths in 2020.
Countywide data, which lags several years behind, suggest Clackamas County’s rates of suicide are lower than most Oregon counties, but still experiences among the highest instances of suicide because of its larger population.
Clackamas experienced an average of 64 deaths by suicide in the period of 2011 to 2017, for a rate of 15.4 suicides per 100,000 residents. The highest rate of suicide in that period was Curry County with 40.4, and the lowest was Morrow, at 10.7.
