Everyone needs HOPE – healing, outreach, prevention and education – HOPE Fest events launch Tillamook County’s mental health awareness month. The Tillamook County Suicide Prevention Coalition was awarded a grant from The Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide and Oregon Health Authority. The major goals of the grant were to host mental health fairs in each part of the county to increase accessibility to suicide prevention and mental health resources and training, and to build community through shared stories of lived experience. These events are happening this May and have been named HOPE Fest, HOPE standing for healing, outreach, prevention and education. South county is happening Thursday, May 2nd from 4-8pm at Nestucca K8 School. North county is happening Wednesday, May 8th at NCRD from 4-8pm. And Tillamook HOPE Fest will be on Friday, May 17th at TBCC from 3-8pm. Each event will have a resource fair, a QPR Gatekeeper suicide prevention training, and a Survivor Storytelling.
The QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) Gatekeeper training covers the following key components: how to Question, Persuade and Refer someone who may be suicidal, how to get help for yourself or learn more about preventing suicide, the common causes of suicidal behavior, the warning signs of suicide, and how to get help for someone in crisis. QPR is like CPR in that they are both designed to increase the chance of survival in the event of a crisis. In QPR the general public is educated about the known warning signs of a suicide crisis and then taught how to respond. The QPR Institute believes that at least one member of every family should be trained in QPR. The more people trained, the more lives saved. If you would like to sign up for a QPR training session at HOPE Fest, email tcspcinfo@gmail.com with your name, email address, and what HOPE Fest QPR you would like to attend.
The Survivor Storytelling part of each event will feature stories of those with lived experience with either mental health or suicide. This can mean that someone has had their own journey with mental health or suicidal ideation or attempts or they have lost someone they love to suicide. Or all of the above, as we know that due to the prevalence of mental health and the correlation to suicide, that folks may experience both their own struggles and the loss of someone they love. Folks that are interested in sharing their stories need to preregister to share. There will not be an open mic portion. This is to ensure that those who are sharing are sharing safely. There is also the option of having someone else read your story if you are not in a safe space to share yourself. We welcome voices of all ages yet due to the nature of what might be shared, we encourage families to be thoughtful about what ages of children they allow to attend the events. To sign up to share your story, email Amanda at tcspcinfo@gmail.com.
We are also encouraging folks that would like to attend the events in general to RSVP ahead of time. For those that RSVP prior to the events, you will be provided dinner at the event. This is for up to the first 50 people to RSVP per event. We cannot guarantee that those who do not RSVP will be provided dinner yet we would love for folks to show up. It is time to start having conversations about mental health and suicide so that we can move from awareness to action and acceptance. For more information or any questions, email tcspcinfo@gmail.com or call Amanda of the Tillamook County Suicide Prevention Coalition at (503) 812-7444.
The Tillamook County Suicide Prevention Coalition would like to thank Tides of Change for being our fiscal sponsor for this grant. We would also like to thank NCRD and Nestucca K8 School for the donated use of their space as our event venues for North and South county HOPE Fest events. I, Amanda Ferrat, would like to personally thank all my coalition members for their time and dedication to the coalition and the grant projects this year. The Coalition is always welcoming new volunteers that are passionate about furthering suicide prevention efforts in our county. To join or for more information, email tcspcinfo@gmail.com.
