Professional Development
Our Professional Development team can provide you with training to enhance communication within your organization and to provide better emotional support in times of stress and crisis.
These courses are part of our goal of building safe and healthy communities and assisting personal growth.
- Tools for Responding to People in Crisis
- Suicide Awareness & Response
- Become a Reaching Out Youth Suicide Prevention Workshop Facilitator
See what our participants said about our workshops
Workshop Availability
All of our workshops are available Monday to Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Please call at least two weeks in advance to ensure our availability matches your needs. For more information, and to book a workshop, please call 604-872-1811 or email ssorrell@crisiscentre.bc.ca.
Tools for Responding to People in Crisis
All of us have experienced some degree of crisis at some point in our lives. Many of us will remember how our thoughts, emotions and behaviours changed in ways that felt difficult to control. We may also remember how these changes affected the people around us. It’s likely that the effects of our “crisis states” were intensified, for everyone, by people not knowing how to deal with us or how to provide useful support. Health researchers tell us that interacting with people in crisis on a regular basis increases the risk of stress, burn out, and depression. We also know that ineffective responses to employees, clients and customers experiencing a crisis are a major source of financial loss in all economic sectors.
If you, or other members of your work group interact with people who may be facing crisis, our workshop “Tools for Responding to People in Crisis” can help you learn how to respond effectively, as well as how to avoid the health consequences of providing crisis support. People who have participated in this training include managers, supervisors, educators, union representatives, customer service staff, and health and emergency service providers.
“Tools for Responding to People in Crisis” provides participants with an understanding of the emotional, cognitive, and behavioural effects of a crisis state and outlines the goals of crisis intervention. Participants will also learn how to use empathy to help reduce emotional intensity and how to help a person in crisis develop a short-term plan.
Through interactive presentations, discussions, exploration and practice, participants will learn to:
- Recognize emotional, cognitive and behavioural indicators of a crisis state
- Apply a simple four-step response model
- Use communication skills effective for crisis intervention
- Facilitate problem solving and short term planning
- Set boundaries recognize the need for self care
Learning how to respond to people in crisis can improve the overall well being of your work group, increase morale and allow employees to focus on the needs of clients or customers.
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Full Day Workshop |
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| Number of participants | Non-profit | Public & Corporate |
| 4 to 15 | $1100 | $1600 |
| 16 to 25 | $1400 | $2100 |
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Half Day Workshop |
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| Number of participants | Non-profit | Public & Corporate |
| 4 to 15 | $700 | $1000 |
| 16 to 25 | $900 | $1300 |
For more information, and to book a workshop, please call 604-872-1811 or email ssorrell@crisiscentre.bc.ca.
Suicide Awareness & Response
“Help those who are looking for help”
Individuals contemplating suicide are looking for help and a way to move out of overwhelming emotional pain. When we know how to recognize warning signs and respond to a suicidal person, we can be a critical bridge between them and those who are able to provide the longer term care they need.
This workshop offers participants information and tools for recognizing and responding to potentially suicidal individuals. Together we examine our perceptions around suicide and challenge assumptions that may reduce our effectiveness as responders. We also review basic crisis intervention goals and practices, and learn strategies unique to suicide intervention. These strategies include:
- Recognizing warning signs
- Risk assessment
- Designing crisis response plans
- Referral
- Follow-up
Reaching out to people who may be suicidal is personally challenging: this is true regardless of the nature of the relationship. Workshop participants will explore healthy boundaries and self-care as activities that mediate these challenges.
Information only becomes knowledge when we apply it and make it part our own experience. Our goal is to maximize opportunities for participants to actively engage with all key content areas. The nature of these engagements varies with the broader learning objectives of each workshop group. They may include:
- Facilitated large group discussions
- Small group explorations
- Full group and dyad role plays
- Personal sharing and short presentations
Upon successful completion of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Recognize general and unique warning signs
- Assess risk and safety needs
- Refer and follow up as appropriate
- Determine personal boundaries and responsibilities
- Get support for, and take care of themselves
|
Full Day Workshop |
||
| Number of participants | Non-profit | Public & Corporate |
| 4 to 15 | $1100 | $1600 |
| 16 to 25 | $1400 | $2100 |
|
Half Day Workshop |
||
| Number of participants | Non-profit | Public & Corporate |
| 4 to 15 | $700 | $1000 |
| 16 to 25 | $900 | $1400 |
For more information, and to book a workshop, please call 604-872-1811 or email ssorrell@crisiscentre.bc.ca.
Become a Reaching Out Youth Suicide Prevention Workshop Facilitator
Suicide continues to be a leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 15 and 24. We believe that many youth suicides are preventable and that youth have a key role to play in reducing youth suicide rates:
- 70 – 80% of people who attempt or contemplate suicide send out warning signs prior to acting;
- Most people who are suicidal have a strong wish to live, as well as a strong wish to die; and
- Young people are more likely to initially disclose their suicidal thoughts to a trusted friend.
The Reaching Out Facilitator Training is a two-day workshop that teaches facilitators how to use the Crisis Centre’s Reaching Out Youth Suicide Prevention program to educate youth about reaching out to help themselves or a friend.
Through interactive presentations, discussions, exploration and practice, participants will learn:
- A practical understanding of youth suicide
- Attitudes and myths around suicide
- Approaches and techniques to creating a safe learning environment
- A four-stage model of suicide awareness and intervention
- How to use community resources
- Confidentiality and consultation
- Care for the caregiver
Upon successful completion of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Effectively facilitate Reaching Out seminars
- Handle difficult situations and questions
- Understand, recognize and respond to a suicidal youth
- Explore appropriate community resources
- Define personal boundaries and responsibilities
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Two Day Workshop |
||
| Number of participants | Non-profit | Public & Corporate |
| 4 to 15 | $1600 | $2400 |
| 16 to 25 | $2000 | $3000 |
For more information, and to book a workshop, please call 604-872-1811 or emailssorrell@crisiscentre.bc.ca.
What Past Participants Had to Say
“The Crisis Centre taught and facilitated the “Suicide Module” for us… In my fifteen years of experience as Housing Manager, this module has never been presented and facilitated so well. I support their operation whole heartedly and commend them on the excellent service they offer to the community.”
- Tom Moore, Housing Manager, BCIT
“[The] teaching methods were simple, interactive, and very effective. [The workshop] gave me tools to help me do my job better as well as a strategy to prevent burnout and take care of myself…[It] helped me to see clearly the line between myself and my clients and helped me define my counselling strategy better. It was a pleasure and a privilege to participate in [the] workshop.”
- Community Health Nurse
“This is one of the best professional development workshops I have ever attended, since we did not spend all day examining the problem; we worked towards solutions which can be tailored to our own creative approach.”
- Counsellor
“The day moved along beautifully and it was very, very rich.”
- Teacher