Suicide prevention trainings now available in Hmong

Specialized suicide prevention trainings are now available in the Hmong language

The newly translated materials come from a collaboration between local Marathon County organizations, the county health department, and Aspirus Health.

“We do want to keep the core training there, but then while doing the training to ensure that it was culturally relevant to the audience that is taking the training,” said Bee Lor, a program manager with the Hmong American Center (HAC).

The HAC helped develop the translated training program.

She says when information is provided in a person’s native language, it’s not just about understanding words, it’s about building trust.

“They feel valid knowing that materials that are this important are also translated into the Hmong language,” Lor said.

The trainings are developed and distributed by the QPR Institute.

 QPR stands for Question, Persuade, Refer. 

“The QPR training focuses on is like the direct questioning of someone when they’re thinking of dying by suicide,” she said. “It’s harder to just have someone directly ask someone that’s Hmong if they want to die by suicide.”

Lor says in the Hmong community, it’s taboo to talk about death, and it’s considered disrespectful to directly ask whether a person is considering suicide. 

She says the Hmong American Center worked with their partners to make sure the translated trainings were culturally appropriate and linguistically accurate. 

“We tend to more describe versus actually translating word for word, and one person can say something and another person can say something in completely different words, but they have the exact same meaning,” Lor said.

Official training materials are now available in the White Hmong dialect, which is widely understood within Hmong communities in Wisconsin and throughout the U.S. 

To take a training or become an instructor, visit the QPR Institute website.