Program Description

Like a college course, QPR’s Pathfinder training is demanding and requires a serious commitment of time and energy. This professional-level course is interactive and robust, and employs evidence-based and evidence-informed best practices in the following:

• Basic mental health
• Crisis intervention
• Skilled interviewing
• Suicide risk detection
• Suicide risk mitigation and management strategies, e.g.,
  safety planning, means reduction, and caring contacts.

This course will take at least 14 hours to complete, plus the time to read a small book. Designed to produce community-based mental health first responders able to deal effectively with people in a crisis of suicide, the training is built upon an evidence-based public health program that has been used to successfully train more than five million people over the past 20+ years. Thus, the Pathfinder training’s objective is to produce a kind of “super gatekeeper,” someone able to do much more than recognize someone in crisis and refer them to a professional. Pathfinders will also be qualified to receive and handle task sharing services from mental health professionals, thus freeing the latter to handle more severe or complex crises.

Following WHO recommendations—and by using the technology transfer of science-based best practices, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and abilities —this version of Pathfinder training aims to prepare those in the helping professions, in peer support roles, first responders, elder care providers, case managers, life coaches, volunteers, and anyone working with adults and older adults to immediately reduce the risk of a suicide attempt