Legion post offers suicide prevention training in support of ‘Be the One’
Mike Williams was looking for a platform to make a difference on a matter very personal to him – suicide prevention. After joining American Legion Post 9 in Brunswick, Ga., in December 2022 and becoming the public relations officer, he found it through The American Legion’s “Be the One” initiative.
“Be the One” aims to reduce the rate of veteran suicide by destigmatizing asking for mental health support, and by encouraging others to “Be the One” to ask a veteran how they are doing, listen when they need to talk and reach out when they are struggling.
“On my last suicide attempt, ‘Are you OK?’ is the question from a complete stranger that actually saved my life,” said Williams, who felt isolated when no one reached out to see if he was OK during his previous attempts with suicide. “With me being formerly suicidal, (Be the One) really struck a chord with me. I have personally lost nine people that was in my (U.S. Army) unit after they got out of the military to suicide. I said something has to change. I had been looking for a bigger platform to make more of a difference. When I saw the Be the One program, I said this is the platform I have been looking for.”
Williams is a certified QPR instructor through QPR Institute whose mission is “to save lives and reduce suicidal behaviors by providing innovative, practical and proven suicide prevention training.”
QPR stands for:
Question: ways to questions someone if they are suicidal. “Asking the question, whether it be to a veteran or a civilian, is one of the hardest questions you can ever ask,” Williams said. “As humans we don’t want to dig too deep in someone’s lives if we don’t want them probing in ours. But that particular ask to someone who is suicidal, even though it’s hard to ask, is extremely important.”
Persuade: persuading the person to live. “It’s, ‘Hey I am here with you; I’m not quitting on you. What can we do to get you through this?’”
Refer: referring them to help with who they feel comfortable speaking with (e.g., pastor, VA, etc.).
Williams had the idea to combine his QPR knowledge with the Legion’s Be the One by offering suicide prevention training to the local community at Post 9 to help save the lives of veterans. “(QPR training) is a very practical approach to suicide prevention that almost anyone can do,” he said. Williams shared his idea with Post 9 Commander Steven Hinson. “This is something that is near and dear to my heart so (Hinson) learned what QPR was and how it ties into the Legion with Be the One … he said, ‘I love it. What do you need from me?’ I’ve been going strong ever since.”
Williams held his first QPR training class Feb. 1 at the post with 10 attendees. The training is free and open to the public and lasts less than two hours. Attendees receive a QPR training booklet that has been generously sponsored by a community member. The goal for Williams is to train 100 people from the Brunswick community on suicide prevention in 2023.
“My training is aimed at saving a veteran’s life. To ask the question, ‘Are you OK?’,” he said. “Suicide prevention comes down to actually having compassion for other human beings. It takes someone to understand that all lives are important whether you’re Black, white, green, orange, purple or blue, veteran, non-veteran. We’re all human. We can both go into the same situation that affects us differently. And at the end of it just take the actual time and compassion to ask the question, ‘Are you ok?’ It makes a world of difference.
“Someone with suicidal ideation when you ask ‘Are you OK?’ it lets them see that this person picked up on something I’m having trouble with. Especially amongst us veterans because most veterans are a little more guarded than the average civilian.”
Williams is offering the QPR Gatkeeper suicide prevention training at 5 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month.
“The more gatekeepers or lifelines that we have in our community the more people a veteran in crisis has around to help save their life,” Williams said.
For more information on QPR training at Post 9, please visit https://americanleg9bwk.com/.