Together, the South Coast ESD and local student district staff in Coos, Curry and Western Douglas Counties support crisis response and prevention.

The efforts of our crisis prevention and response team is to ensure our local school districts along with the SCESD train educators, students, staff and our community to help prevent crisis situations, and prepare for times of intense difficulty like the loss of a student or staff or during an emergency.

The SCESD Crisis Prevention Team supports training on suicide prevention, district training to set-up crisis response incident structures in schools, threat assessment support and resource information, guidance on crisis response for students, families and staff, and support during crisis situations.

The Crisis Team was established in the fall of 2018 when the South Coast ESD along with the local school districts agreed to establish a Regional Crisis Prevention and Response Team. The district stakeholders and SCESD focus to support students, families and staff and the community with prevention, preparedness and response to a crisis has grown. Over a course of one year, the crisis team has supported,

• Responding and supporting school districts in times of an emergency or crisis situation
• The establishing of school crisis response teams in districts
• Training of district staff and community members on the suicide prevention program, Question, Persuade, Refer
• Training district and SCESD staff to train on the suicide prevention program,
  Question, Persuade, Refer
• Collaboration with local community agencies on crisis prevention

It is the mission of the crisis response team to continue this vital work in support of our students, families, districts and community. Efforts this year include,

• Increasing the number of staff trained on the suicide prevention program.
  Question, Persuade, Refer
• Supporting our district educators in their work with suicide assessments
• Preparing to align with the State plan taking effect in 2020-21 on suicide prevention, intervention and crisis response after a suicide.
• Establishing a regional on-call threat assessment team to help prevent crisis situations in our schools.
• Continued collaboration with local and state mental health agencies.

As many of you have read, the suicide rate has increased for our students and the potential for a threat in our schools can happen. The crisis team is committed to the work to support our students, families, districts and community to prevent crisis situations.

If you or someone you know needs support, PLEASE CONTACT an adult you know or call, text or chat with another person at the Oregon Youth line or National Suicide Prevention Hotline.

The information is below:
Oregon Youth line – open 7 days a week from 4-10pm!
call: 1-877-968-8491
text: “teen2teen” to 839863
chat: www.oregonyouthline.org

National Suicide Prevention Hotline – open 24/7!
call: 1-800-273-8255
text: “273TALK” to 839863
chat: www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org