Saturday, July 4, 1998

Suicide seminar to be presented at Pastoral Care and Counseling Center

By LORETTA FULTON Senior Staff Writer

A teen-age couple went to a drive-in movie, seemingly having the time of their lives.

The boy went to the concession stand and later was found hanged in the bathroom. His girlfriend was so distraught that a week later she, too, hanged herself.

It's the kind of story that Steve Willis is all too familiar with. On July 11 Willis, senior staff therapist at Pastoral Care and Counseling Center, will conduct a workshop on "Suicide: Sights, Sounds, Solutions."

Deadline to register is Monday. Workshop hours will be 9 a.m.-noon at the center, 1317 N. 8th.

The workshop is designed for volunteers and professionals, Willis said. It is free to volunteers, costs $10 for professionals not receiving certification and $20 for those wanting continuing education credit. Call 672-5683 for more information.

Willis expects volunteers and professionals from many areas, including the prisons, Noah Project, churches, Parents Anonymous, and others.

"People who work with depressed people," he said.

Teen suicide is especially hard to deal with. One reason that it is so prevalent today, Willis believes, is because children "don't have any spiritual guidelines laid down by parents."

Teens often feel hopeless and helpless and ask the question, "What's the use?"

Many times the answer to a youngster's problems is simply showing that you care, Willis said.

"Sometimes all they were wanting was someone to say, 'I'll miss you,' " he said.

Older people who commit suicide often do so because they can't find a solution to life's problems.

They'll ask, "What's the use? I don't see any way out," Willis said.

The workshop will take a six-pronged approach to dealing with potential suicide: vital signs, warning signs, seriousness of suicidal thoughts, emergency do's and don'ts, aiding the volunteer, and scenarios.

Also communication will be stressed.

"Probably that's the best intervention," Willis said.

The aim of the workshop to prepare volunteers and professionals to recognize suicidal tendencies and to intervene in a crisis situation.

"Hopefully, they'll learn the facts and then practice what they know," he said.