Catholic Social Services Responds to Bishop’s Challenge
The South Dakota Legislature has a new mandate regarding suicide prevention efforts (SB 129) for all SD School Districts. Effective July 1, 2017, all teachers, administrators and other educational professionals must have suicide prevention training. This training must be a minimum of one hour of suicide awareness and prevention.
By Jim Kinyon MS, LPC-MH, LMFT, QMHP
Executive Director
South Dakota presents a disturbing picture of the number of suicides in our state from 2004 – 2015. Nationally, suicide deaths per 100,000 populations are around 13.4. Unfortunately our numbers are substantially worse in South Dakota at 16.1 per 100,000. Many counties in western South Dakota are among the highest suicide rates in the nation. To make matters worse South Dakota’s teen and young adult losses indicate that suicide is the second leading cause of death for that age group; nationally teen suicides are the third leading cause of death. Suicide rates among Native Americans in this state in 2015 were a shocking 64.6 per 100,000 people.
Catholic Social Services (CSS) is committed to seeing these disturbing trends reversed and we hope to partner with you in order to accomplish this. CSS is staffed with professional therapists, qualified to provide suicide prevention workshops in your area. We have a very diverse, devoted staff that reflects the populations we serve. We provide the documentation to verify we are certified trainers for Question, Persuade, Refer, (QPR) -Suicide Prevention. Fees are negotiable depending on your proximity to one of our offices and the number of staff required for trainings.
On a related subject, Catholic Social Services also offers Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) for schools, businesses and other organizations. We can design a program to fit your needs and budget.
If you would like to know more about either Suicide Prevention Training or Employee Assistance Programs, please contact our office at 605-348-6086 to schedule.
We know together we too can provide hope to South Dakotans.
Sincerely,
Jim Kinyon MS, LPC-MH, LMFT, QMHP
Executive Director
