From the President

As we enter the sixth month of the coronavirus pandemic, one of the things we’re really missing at the Idaho Community Foundation are our in-person events.

Summer is usually the time when we celebrate a Friend of the Foundation in each region of the state, share stories about our work and thank all of you for your continued support. 

But of course we can’t do that this year. We’ve made the difficult decision to postpone all of our large, in-person events until 2021. 

In their place, we’ve been hosting virtual events with donors, nonprofit partners and members. The best outcome of this new format is that we are able to bring together people from all over the state to learn about issues affecting our communities and hear about the unique and shared impacts in local areas. 

For example, it was wonderful to see people from across the state tune in to learn about community conservation in Bonner County and the statewide impact of the Pacific Northwest Resilient Landscapes Initiative, a partnership with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Land Trust Alliance, Seattle Foundation and Oregon Community Foundation that will preserve critical habitat in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. If you missed it, you can watch a recording.

Other recent topics include:

• COVID-19 and Idaho: Where do we go from here? – An update about the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund for Idaho, the efforts of The Idaho Foodbank to combat increased food insecurity during the pandemic, and the effects of the pandemic on Idaho nonprofits.  Click to watch a recording of the session.

• The ALICE report from the United Ways of Idaho – Which provides insights into the struggles of individuals and families who are employed, but still having trouble making ends meet. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. Click to watch a recording of the session.

We’ll keep you posted on future education sessions and we encourage you to register early. We have “space” for 100 people to login and most of the sessions have filled quickly.

I hope that you and your loved ones are enjoying good health during another beautiful Idaho summer and that we can all be together soon!

Best wishes,
Karen

Question, Persuade, Refer: Preventing suicide in Idaho and around the world

Editor’s note: Mental health is one of ICF’s four Areas of Impact where ICF is focusing our grantmaking.

As clinical director of Spokane Mental Health (now Frontier Behavioral Health) in Washington in the 1990s, Paul Quinnett became increasingly aware of suicides among patients who were active and otherwise healthy.

Concerned, he began to focus his practice on suicidal patients “trying to learn why people wanted to choose death over life,” he said. When he lost two professional acquaintances to suicide, both of whom worked in psychology, he started developing a suicide prevention program to teach people how to recognize the signs of suicide in their friends, family and others in their lives.

Now known as The QPR Institute for Question, Persuade and Refer, more than 5 million people around the world have taken QPR training, mostly in the United States and Australia.

A virtual company based in Spokane and Moscow, the 90-minute QPR training helps people become “gatekeepers” who can recognize the warning signs of suicide, know how to offer hope and know how to get help.

Clarissa Richardson, director of the Idaho FORM Project, received a grant from the North Idaho Action Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation to conduct a series of community-led QPR trainings in Boundary County.

The Idaho FORM Project focuses on creating partnerships with rural communities to help address mental health disparities. Idaho ranks 6th in the nation in rates of suicide and Boundary County is among the Idaho counties with the highest rate.

“We chose QPR because it is evidence-based and can be taught by individuals who are not trained as mental health professionals,” Clarissa said. “Community members are taught by their fellow community members and the value of those relationships is huge.”

Paul, who splits his time between Washington and Idaho, said there aren’t clear answers why Idaho – and all western states, plus Alaska – have higher than average suicide rates. He said contributing factors include isolation, the stress of a boom and bust economy especially in mining, forestry, farming and ranching, and lack of mental health and substance abuse treatment services.

“Some think it has to do with the culture of the West – ‘Man up and don’t ask for help,’” he said, noting that men are at higher risk for suicide than women and that the risks go up with each decade of life.

Clarissa added that there can be a stigma toward mental health issues in rural communities, though she also pointed out that rural communities also have a feeling of connectedness between residents, which makes the QPR training especially effective.

“Someone will notice when another community member is struggling, and having lots of people who understand mental health and how to refer someone to help can make a big difference,” she said. “Our goal is to capitalize on the strengths of rural communities to assist in reducing suicide rates in rural Idaho.”

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