Moore responds to Waupaca County’s suicide problem
By Jane Myhra
Sandi Moore, of Iola, is working to prevent suicides.
After completing a QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Workshop in 2012 and with further training, Moore was certified as a QPR trainer in August of 2013.
QPR is a free 90-120 minute training based on a simple model: Question (a friend, neighbor, co-worker, family member) when there are concerns he or she may be thinking of suicide. Persuade them to let you get help for them. Refer them to appropriate individuals for assistance.
“Suicidal individuals often decide to take their lives because they do not feel there is any hope for them,” said Moore. “QPR is based on hope and helping individuals to see that there are options.”
She said the model is easy to understand and apply and is based on letting the suicidal individual know someone cares and that there is hope.
Moore joined the Waupaca County Suicide Prevention Coalition (WCSPC) in the fall of 2014 due to her desire to “be part of the solution” to Wisconsin’s high suicide rate. As a WCSPC volunteer, she has helped with fundraising, served on the committees which brought two national suicide prevention speakers to Waupaca and has presented or co-presented numerous QPR presentations to church, school and community groups.
She and fellow counselor Annette Larie will co-facilitate a Suicide Prevention Training at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, at Clintonville United Methodist Church, 24 W. 13th St., Clintonville.
While in her master’s program in counseling at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the early 1990s, Moore developed a strong interest in grief, loss and transition. After her graduation from UW-Oshkosh, she lived in Menasha and worked in employee assistance counseling and outplacement consulting for 18 months at the former Career Development Group in Appleton.
She then accepted a counseling position at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, where she worked from August of 1997 to June of 2014.
While living in the Fox Valley, she continued her interest in grief, loss and transition, both professionally and personally. A majority of the students Moore worked with at FVTC were in some life transition, whether it was from job loss, career changes due to health issues or the sudden loss of a partner through separation, divorce or death.
She continued her education by earning a doctorate in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University. Her dissertation was a study of the needs of widowed students at a two-year college.
Moore volunteered for the Fox Valley Grief Network (FVGN) for eight years, serving as co-chair for five years. She joined the board of the Center for Suicide Awareness in Kaukauna in 2011. She also has been an advisory board member for CAP Services for the past 20 years and a Red Cross Mental Health volunteer for 15 years.
Two days after Moore retired from FVTC, she and her husband Bill moved to their lake home just north of Iola.
Moore currently serves on the Hitterdahl Lutheran Church council, is a member of the Iola Lioness Club and teaches part time for FVTC. Her hobbies include water aerobics, playing cribbage, traveling, cooking ethnic foods and playing with her two dogs.
When asked what she likes most about living in Iola, she replied, “It’s hard to give just one answer. I love living on a lake and enjoy all the nature. The people are very friendly here, and the pace of life is more relaxed than in the Fox Valley. Yet this community offers so much for a village of its size.”