Training fosters suicide-safer community
BUFFALO — A community that’s safer from suicide has a safety net that is broadly spread and tightly woven. The threads in this analogy from Bill Hawley represent supportive people, organizations and agencies.
Another is education.
Last week, Hawley, Johnson County’s prevention manager, facilitated LivingWorks Applied Suicide Intervention and Skills Training for 11 participants. It’s one of four trainings offered through LivingWorks, a suicide prevention and intervention training company based in Canada.
Better known as ASIST, the program is a two-day interactive workshop that empowers participants to intervene with someone who has thoughts of suicide. Approximately 200 Johnson County residents have been trained during 12 sessions over the past several years, Hawley said.
“ASIST is one very thick, significant thread that we weave into this safety net that we hope to continue to create to make our community safer,” he said.
The training in Buffalo was the 82nd that Hawley has facilitated. He and David Hapka, a nurse at Sheridan Memorial Hospital, led participants through the training, which is one of several programs that have destigmatized conversations about mental health and suicide.
The training, given its length, is more in-depth than its other gatekeeper counterparts, such as QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer). Hawley said that roughly 1,500 people in the county have participated in QPR training at some point in the past two decades.
QPR encourages people to notice behaviors that could be indicative of suicidal thoughts and ask a question. ASIST goes beyond that, Hawley said, to give participants skills for if the person they’re interacting with says “yes.”
“Not only does (ASIST) give some courage and confidence, which is what we talked about in QPR, to ask a question, but then it’s also, all right, you just said yes; how can I help you rediscover, how can I help you remember what those supports are in your life, what those strengths are in your life, so that your thoughts don’t become action,” he said.
The intervention is essentially suicide first aid. Hawley compared it to training in first aid and stabilizing a person with a broken bone until an ambulance arrives.
What caregiving looks like from there depends on the relationship between the caregiver and the person with thoughts.
“What ASIST is, is leaning in and keeping someone safe,” he said. “That safety plan, that hand up to whoever the appropriate supports are, whether that’s family, informal supports, family, friends, could be a faith community. For a young person, a sports team or theater.”
Participants ran the gamut – health care workers, law enforcement, mental health professionals and advocates for suicide prevention.
“When you have a diversity of folks with professional experience and lived experience, you’re creating connections,” Hawley said. “Depending on whether we’re wearing our professional hat or our personal hat, we lean in, we keep someone safe, and then there’s a hand up.”
ASIST is based on a model called the Pathway to Assisting Life. Through it, participants are considered caregivers, whom facilitators teach to look for signs of suicidal thoughts and mental health distress.
The pathway begins with recognizing potential signs of suicidal thoughts and asking whether it’s something the person has been thinking about. Then, it goes on to encourage caregivers to ask thoughtful questions and, more than anything, listen to the person they are talking with. From there, it’s about encouraging the person to remember points of hope and strength in his or her life and create a safety plan.
The crux of the training is to openly ask people whether they are considering suicide.
Hawley said that people are often hesitant to ask the question, because there is a pervasive myth that asking the question puts the thought in someone’s mind.
“When we ask the question, we’re probably the first person who’s ever noticed that the pain and overwhelm is that great,” he said. “Usually, people who are asked the question are like, ‘Wow, your timing is perfect.’”
Still, it can be an uncomfortable experience, acknowledged Flo Gullick, a participant in the program and the Buffalo Police Department’s communications supervisor.
Gullick is head of dispatch, which means she answers 911 calls and, as such, has interacted with numerous community members in distress. In an interview after the training, she said that she has learned through trainings like ASIST to ask someone directly if he or she is thinking of suicide.
“Had I not had any classes where they’re telling you that, I don’t know if I would, because I’d be afraid I’d be insulting them,” Gullick said. “I think anybody could benefit from taking this class.”
Jamie Mann, a nurse at the Veterans’ Home of Wyoming, said after the training that law enforcement officers in the community who she has interacted with have been responsive and caring in mental health situations. Gullick said that she will encourage other dispatchers and law enforcement officers to participate in the training next time it is offered locally.
The biggest takeaway for her, she said, is to be a good listener.
“Me, I’m always wanting to try to put a positive spin on things, but I’m learning that sometimes those aren’t the appropriate things to say during those conversations.”
If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988; text the Crisis Text Line: text WYO 741741; or call Volunteers of America in Buffalo at 684-5531.
This story was published on May 15, 2025.