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Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Program Descriptions

Choose a Grantee University of Alaska AnchorageUniversity of Arizona, Campus Health Service Arizona State UniversityUniversity of California - BerkeleyUniversity of California - IrvineCalifornia State University - FullertonCalifornia State University - Long BeachMt. San Antonio CollegeAdams State CollegeTrinidad State Junior CollegeRegis UniversityConnecticut CollegeFlorida Gulf Coast UniversityEdward Waters CollegeDaytona State CollegeNova Southeastern University Bethune-Cookman UniversityUniversity of MiamiUniversity of West FloridaUniversity of West Georgia Emory University University of Hawaii Trinity Christian CollegeColumbia College ChicagoNortheastern Illinois UniversityArt Institute of ChicagoPurdue UniversityKansas State UniversityUniversity of Kentucky - LexingtonUniversity of Louisiana - Monroe University of MaineUniversity of Southern MaineTowson University University of MarylandMassachusetts Maritime AcademyTufts UniversityBoston University University of Massachusetts - Amherst Worcester Polytechnic Institute Western Michigan UniversityMichigan State UniversitySt. Cloud State UniversityJackson State University Mississippi State University - MeridianUniversity of Southern MississippiLinn State Technical CollegeNorthwest Missouri State UniversityUniversity of Missouri-ColumbiaUniversity of Nebraska - KearneyKeene State CollegeSaint Peter's CollegeNew Mexico Highlands UniversityUniversity of New MexicoNew Mexico State UniversityOrange County Community College (SUNY Orange) Buffalo State College Stony Brook UniversitySyracuse UniversityUniversity at AlbanyPace UniversityRensselaer Polytechnic InstituteSUNY - BuffaloCity College of New YorkUniversity of North Carolina - Chapel HillUniversity of North Carolina - GreensboroUniversity of North DakotaOhio State UniversityNortheast Ohio Medical UniversityOklahoma State University - OkmulgeeUniversity of OregonBlue Mountain Community CollegeBloomsburg UniversityPennsylvania State University - AltoonaThomas Jefferson UniversityUniversity of South CarolinaSouth Dakota School of Mines and TechnologyVanderbilt UniversityEast Tennessee State University University of Tennessee - KnoxvilleUniversity of Memphis University of Texas-BrownvilleTexas CollegeUniversity of Texas - Pan AmericanUniversity of North TexasUniversity of UtahUtah Valley UniversityLawrence UniversityCollege of Menominee Nation Marquette UniversityUniversity of Wisconsin - OshkoshUniversity of Wyoming George Washington UniversityHoward UniversityUniversidad del TuraboUniversity of Puerto Rico - CayeyUniversity of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus (UPR-MSC)University of Puerto Rico-Rio PiedrasUniversity of Guam or Browse the Grantees below

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University of Alaska Anchorage (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The University of Alaska Anchorage Integrated Suicide Prevention Initiative aims to implement a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable approach to suicide prevention across the University of Alaska Anchorage campus community. The UAA ISPI will augment and coordinate existing suicide prevention efforts to reach faculty, staff, and students across campus. Drawing upon years of strategic planning guided by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center
Strategic Planning Process, UAA ISPI, led by the UAA Center for Behavioral Health Research and Services, will bring together relevant campus units to accomplish five primary goals:

1. increase training opportunities related to suicide prevention and mental health promotion on the UAA campus for staff, students, and faculty;
2. increase collaboration among logical campus partners for purposes of delivering suicide prevention messages;
3. increase the availability and use of relevant educational materials to improve suicide risk reduction;
4.  increase help-seeking among students in a non-stigmatizing environment; and
5.  increase promotion of the Alaska Careline, part of the National Suicide Prevention Hotline network.

UAA ISPI’s three primary strategies to accomplish these goals are: 1) the development of an Advisory Council to guide a comprehensive and coordinated suicide prevention and mental health promotion effort on campus; 2) implementation of targeted faculty, staff, and student gatekeeper trainings that lead to a better understanding of suicide risk factors, greater identification of students at risk, improved student referral for mental health and suicide intervention, and availability of peer-supports; and 3) development and implementation of a campus campaign to promote help-seeking behaviors and reduce stigma. All campus members, including over 16,000 students and 2,700 staff and faculty employees, will be targeted with gatekeeper training and campus campaign efforts. Assessment measures will include, but are not limited to, number of individuals trained, satisfaction and knowledge among trained individuals, breadth of impact of campus campaign materials, and changes in campus climate with regard to student help-seeking and stigma surrounding mental health. The initiative’s activities and evaluation efforts will be respectful of and designed to be appropriate for the diversity of the campus community, being sensitive to and appropriate for the gender, age, sexual orientation, and ethnicity of each target group. As the initiative will work directly with numerous campus partners and existing efforts, its programs, resources, and Advisory Council will have the sustainability necessary to continue beyond the SAMHSA-funded project period. UAA ISPI efforts will also be greatly enhanced and supported through its ability to work collaboratively with Garrett Lee Smith grantees across the state of Alaska.

Contact Information:

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University of Arizona, Campus Health Service  (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The University of Arizona (UA) Campus Health Service (CHS), in collaboration with a wide variety of campus and community partners, proposes a comprehensive suicide prevention strategy to reduce suicidal ideation, attempts, completions and related risk factors such as substance use and depression among UA students with a special emphasis on high-risk student populations (LGBTQ students, veterans, military family members, Native Americans). To reach this goal, the following objectives will be addressed: (1) Increase (10%) knowledge, comfort level and willingness to respond effectively to students with mental and/or behavioral health problems; (2) increase (5%) awareness and utilization of campus and community resources that can identify, assess and treat mental and behavioral health problems; (3) increase (5%) help seeking for mental and behavioral health problems; (4) decrease (5%) risk factors such as depression and substance abuse; (5) decrease (5%) suicide attempts and (6) institutionalize effective program components and disseminate information at the local, state and national levels. Located in Tucson, UA is a large public institution (over 38,000 students) about 70 miles from the US/Mexico border. Over 35% of the student population is from an ethnic/racial minority with 3% being Native American. Significant problems of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and mental health issues among students have been documented on annual campus surveys since 1995. On the 2010 survey (n=2931), 40% had engaged in heavy episodic drinking in the past two weeks, 34% had used marijuana in the past year, 12% had used pain pills and 9% had used sedatives not prescribed to them. While 11% had been diagnosed with depression and 11% with anxiety, 25% indicated that anxiety or depression had made it somewhat or very difficult to work, study, go to class or get along with people. Data from UA Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) triage forms for 2010 indicates that 63% of students seeking services said they were depressed, 31% felt isolated/withdrawn and 70% said they had anxiety. These risk factors indicate the strong need for comprehensive suicide prevention on campus. To address the objectives, the team will utilize gatekeeper training to 550 individuals/year, educational presentations and curriculum infusion to a minimum of 400 individuals/year and campus-wide efforts such as student driven activities and media (videos, posters, pamphlets, articles) with the potential to be seen by most students (38,000), as well as local, state and national dissemination (presentations, technical assistance and publications). To evaluate these efforts, data will be collected on: (1) increases in knowledge, willingness and comfort to intervene among training participants (pre/immediate/3-month post); (2) increased utilization of resources (CAPS triage); (3) increased help seeking (annual campus-wide student survey, presentation pre/immediate posttests); (4) decreased risk factors and suicide attempts among the general student population (annual campus-wide student survey, campus suicide data) and (5) increased collaboration/dissemination at the local, state and national levels.

Contact Information:
Peggy Glider
Project Director
Campus Health Service
Tucson, AZ Tel: 520-621-5973
Email: glider@health.arizona.edu

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Arizona State University (2005–2008 & 2008–2011)

Program Description:
Arizona State University (ASU) is one of the nation's largest and fastest growing institutions of higher education, enrolling more than 67,000 students across four campuses in the Phoenix area. ASU’s "Campus Care Suicide Prevention" program is designed to address suicide prevention through the lens of primary and secondary prevention. The program targets gatekeepers, students, and parents to reduce risk for suicide and promote protective factors.

The current project is an expansion of ASU Tempe campus' current successful suicide prevention program that targeted Residential/First Year students. This grant will bring the program to all four ASU campuses. In addition, this project will extend the program to target racial/ethnic minority students, students with disabilities, international students, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Questioning (LGBTIQ) students on all four ASU campuses.

Education is provided to gatekeepers, students and parents and designed to enhance knowledge, skills and abilities to identify and refer high-risk students; identify and respond to early warning signs and risk behaviors; promote protective factors; increase students' awareness of personal risk and protective behaviors; increase the utilization of resources for counseling and wellness within the target populations; reduce stigma of mental and behavioral health conditions; engage students, faculty, staff, parents and other key individuals and constituencies in leadership roles to facilitate suicide prevention within the target populations; and promote a wellness program on all campuses, specifically targeting the high-risk populations.

Contact Information:
Karen Moses, MS, RD, CHES
Director, Wellness and Health Promotion
Arizona State University
P.O. Box 872104
Tempe, AZ 85287
Tel: 480-965-1360
Email: karen.moses@asu.edu

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University of California - Berkeley (2005–2008 & 2008–2011)

Program Description:
The initiative at the University of California, Berkeley is called the Asian-Pacific Islander Early Intervention Program (Cal-APEIP). The program supports a comprehensive and coordinated approach to prevent suicide and attempted suicide, focusing on the issues of Asian-Pacific Islander (API) students; their parents/families; and key faculty, staff, and student leaders.

Almost 35% of Berkeley students are API, representing multiple cultures, languages, socioeconomics, and immigrant generations. This presents a challenge in addressing health and mental health needs. Research shows API students may be at particular risk for mental health concerns and suicide, and may be less likely to utilize mental health services. At Berkeley, API students make up only 20% of visits to mental health services. This tendency to underutilize or delay services may lead to distress being more acute upon entry into the system. Despite the diversity among API students, there are shared cultural elements to consider when addressing mental health needs. These may provide protective factors, but also may contribute to higher risk (e.g., emphasis on academic success; importance of family and community; the large percentage of API students being immigrants or from recent-immigrant families).

We plan to:

• Increase the knowledge of API students and their families about mental health and suicide, addressing stigma, and normalizing help-seeking.
• Increase the capacity of faculty, staff, and student leaders to identify, respond to, assist, and refer API students at risk.
• Strengthen the campus safety network for API students with mental health needs and at risk for suicide, and increasing the campus community's knowledge of this network.

Contact Information:
Susan Bell
Assistant Director- Counseling & Psychological Services
University of California, Berkeley
Counseling & Psychological Services
University Health Services-Tang Center
Berkeley, CA 94720-4300
Tel: 510-642-9494
Email: suebell@uhs.berkeley.edu

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University of California - Irvine (2005–2008)

Program Description:
The University of California Irvine proposes the establishment of Project COURAGE (Campus Opportunities Uniting Resources Around Giving Encouragement). The overall goal of Project COURAGE is to prevent suicide by promoting a campus norm that honors achievement and competition while encouraging and allowing students to seek support when it is needed. The project will initially target first-year students with increased education, screening, and support services. Consistent with the framework suggested by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, the activities of Project COURAGE will strengthen and fill gaps in existing services to "expand the safety net" for students vulnerable to suicidal ideations. Activities will include the formation of Project COURAGE teams consisting of faculty, staff, and students who will be trained by clinical providers to assist in identification and referral of students at risk for suicide. Project staff will work with Better World Advertising to formulate and produce a social marketing campaign to support project goals. Clinical staff will also work to increase screenings for depression, substance abuse, and other mental disorders that put students at higher risk for suicide. Project materials will be distributed to parents through a quarterly Parents' Newsletter and Parents' Weekend programs. Staff will also attend trainings on Stress Management Prevention at the Harvard Mind/Body Medical Institute, in order to integrate their research on stress into the Project COURAGE work. Evaluation strategies include an annual online student survey designed to measure two outcomes: 1) First year students will report decreases in measures of poor mental health/depression (PMHD) and 2) First year students will report increased awareness and regard for campus mental health services.

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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California State University - Fullerton (2006–2009)

Program Description:
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among college students. While attending college is a protective factor against suicide compared to non-school attending 18-24 year old category, transitioning to a college campus can be an overwhelming experience. California State University, Fullerton is the largest state university among the twenty three California State University campuses, with a rich and diverse student demographic. With 4% of CSUF students participating in the International Education Program, and most CSUF students working at least 10 hours per week, CSUF students are under tremendous amounts of stress. The Campus Suicide Prevention Project at CSUF will focus on establishing a Crisis Response Team and protocol to better assist the campus community to respond to a suicide or suicide attempt. Other goals of the project include enhanced faculty, staff and student training to better recognize signs of at risk students in order to refer for mental health treatment. The project will focus on reducing the stigma to receiving treatment for mental health conditions. This will be accomplished by conducting a social marketing campaign, targeting multicultural and ethnic populations, as these student groups are less likely to seek treatment for mental health conditions. This project will implement a tracking system to better quantify mental health issues of CSUF students so as to prioritize services and programming to address this public health concern.

Contact Information:
Mary Hermann
California State University, Fullerton
800 North State College Blvd
Fullerton, CA 92834
Email: mhermann@fullerton.edu

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California State University - Long Beach (2008–2011)

Program Description:
California State University, Long Beach has established Project OCEAN (On Campus Emergency Assistance Network). The overall goal of Project OCEAN is to prevent suicide by promoting a campus climate that honors the lives of all students while encouraging and allowing them to seek support when needed. The project targets "high-risk" students (e.g. students with disabilities, first generation students, low-income students, and graduate students from the Schools of Natural Sciences and Engineering) and provides them with increased education, screening, and support services.

Project OCEAN promotes access to existing campus mental health services by training a cadre of faculty, staff, and students in appropriate referral strategies using the QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) program. Project staff members also work with student focus groups to formulate and produce a social marketing campaign. Additionally, clinical staff members work to increase screenings for depression, substance abuse, and other mental disorders that put students at higher risk for suicide. Project materials are distributed to parents through parent orientation programs and the University Parents' Council. Evaluation strategies include a student survey designed to measure two outcomes: 1) Targeted students will report decreases in measures of poor mental health/depression; and 2) Students will report increased awareness and regard for campus mental health services.

Contact Information:
Brad Compliment, Ph.D.
Director, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
California State University-Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard - MS 0111
Long Beach, CA 90840
Tel: 562-985-4001
Email: bcomplim@csulb.edu

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Mt. San Antonio College (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The ultimate goal of the Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) Suicide Prevention Grant is to prevent suicide attempts and completions through the enhancement of services for students with mental and behavioral health problems at the largest single-campus community college district in California. Located in Los Angeles County, Mt. SAC enrolls more than 30,000 for-credit students each semester. The college is both a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution. Vast numbers of students speak a primary home language other than English. While the college enrolls students from a variety of age groups, from high school students (through dual and/or concurrent enrollment) to senior citizens, the majority of students are traditional college-age students (24 years of age or younger). As an open-access community college, Mt. SAC is committed to serving diverse students who have unique and challenging situations, are from low-income families, and are the first in their families to pursue a college education. Among Mt. SAC’s credit student enrollment, 70.6% are low-income and/or first-generation college students. In addition, the college serves populations that may be at higher risk for substance abuse, depression, and suicide - approximately 2,000 student veterans (more than any other community college in California), more than 2,500 students with learning and/or physical disabilities, and a significant population of LGBT students. The project will implement a variety of activities aimed at four major objectives: (1) increase the number of people in mental health and related workforce trained in mental health-related practices/activities by at least 20% each grant year; (2) increase the number of organizations that entered into formal MOUs to improve mental health-related practices/activities consistent with the goals of the grant by at least 1 each grant year; (3) increase the number of individuals exposed to mental health awareness messages by at least 20% each grant year; and (4) increase the number of individuals who have received training in prevention or mental health promotion by at least 20% each grant year. Activities will include the following: development of training programs for college faculty/staff, student leaders, parents/families of current students (with targeted outreach to higher-risk populations), and regional high school counselors/teachers; strengthen partnerships with regional mental and behavioral health providers through the establishment of formal MOUs; develop and implement multi-linguistic educational seminars, including workshops targeted at higher risk populations; purchase and/or develop multi-linguistic informational materials, including those targeted at higher risk populations; and conduct outreach to parents/families of students.

Contact Information:
Sandra Samples, RN
Director
Student Health Services
Mt. San Antonio College
1100 N. Grand Avenue
Walnut, CA 91789
Tel: 909-274-4400
Email: SSamples@mtsac.edu

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Adams State College (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The Adams State College Campus Suicide Prevention Program will implement infrastructure improvements and an annual program of campus outreach activities and gatekeeper trainings to foster a campus culture of help-seeking and reporting, and reduce the stigma associated with depression, substance abuse, and suicidal behaviors. The ASC program provides connections with mental health providers and on-campus groups, and provides referrals for at-risk students.
The 2009 suicide rate of 18.4/100,000 in Colorado is the sixth-highest in the US. The San Luis Valley’s rate of over 28/100,000 in 2009 leads Colorado. The San Luis Valley (SLV) is an extremely rural region at an altitude of 7,500 feet that includes some of the poorest counties in the nation and where the citizens struggle with low levels of education and high use of alcohol and other drugs. This suicide prevention project focuses on ASC’s students (2500), faculty and staff (500)—with particular outreach to high-risk populations, such as GLBT, veteran, and American Indian students. 44% of ASC students are residents of the SLV and 86% are from Colorado. Reflective of SLV demographics, ASC has the largest percentage of minority students (39%) and the largest percentage of students who are eligible for need-based Pell grants (61%; avg. family income: $24,555) of any four-year institution in Colorado.
Project activities will build the college’s network of support and provider services for students and will promote a culture of help-seeking and reporting through gatekeeper trainings and campus outreach activities. Building on ASC’s existing prevention policy, a comprehensive crisis response plan will be developed. Infrastructure improvements include hiring an Outreach Coordinator/Prevention Specialist to work closely with ASC’s Students of Concern Committee to track and make referrals for students struggling with suicidal thoughts or actions. Developing trainers for ASIST and SafeTALK will dramatically increase the number of faculty, staff, and student leaders able to intervene with a suicidal student, and will increase awareness of suicide prevention resources. Annual mental health and alcohol screening events on campus will identify at-risk students and raise campus awareness of prevention issues. Partnerships with on-campus groups including the Gay-Straight Alliance, the Student Veterans group, and the Student Life Cross-Cultural Center will promote resources for high-risk populations. Community mental health providers will assist ASC with strengthening communications with emergency services and student connections to local, state and federal resources. Measurable objectives include increasing: number of faculty, staff, and student leaders trained in ASIST and/or SafeTALK; number of students of concern effectively tracked, provided with referrals and follow-ups; protocols adopted with mental health providers; and number of participants impacted through outreach activities. While the project aims to impact all of ASC’s students and faculty/staff, we anticipate reaching 800 or more participants each year. Estimated project total is 3,000 served.

Contact Information:
Gregg Elliott
Director
Counseling & Career Services
208 Edgemont Blvd.
Alamosa, CO 81102
Tel: 719-587-7746
Fax:
Email: greggelliott@adams.edu

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Trinidad State Junior College (2008–2011)

Program Description:
Trinidad State Junior College (TSJC), established in 1925, is a comprehensive, Hispanic-serving two-year rural community college in Colorado. TSJC is proposing the Suicide Prevention Outreach and Education (SPOE) Project to address the need for suicide prevention, education, and unified referral among a rural eight-county region of Southern Colorado. The college student population is 38 percent Hispanic and 42 percent minority. The target population includes students aged 16–25, education staff and faculty, and community gatekeepers including health and mental health providers. These populations encompass a broad spectrum of students and professionals in the education, health, and mental health arena. It is the intent of the SPOE to develop and coordinate a multipronged effort intended to positively impact the region. The SPOE Project goals include:  

1. to develop a coordinated and knowledgeable suicide prevention network coalition infrastructure among mental health, high school, college, and community gatekeepers in the region; 
2. to develop social marketing campaigns to destigmatize mental disorders and increase help-seeking behavior among students by offering activities and materials to at least 800 students; and
3. to provide training for at least 50 faculty, staff, and administrators to increase the number of trained gatekeepers in the community.

To meet these objectives, the TSJC SPOE Project has attended regional network coalition meetings, hosted gatekeeper trainings, and developed and implemented an education and destigmatization campaign to provide training for identification of suicide at-risk behaviors and intervention strategies. TSJC and Spanish Peaks Mental Health Services in partnership with regional high schools in Huerfano, Las Animas, and six San Luis Valley counties identified the need for a suicide prevention, education, and outreach program to build unified, effective, and sustainable suicide prevention and mental health awareness infrastructure through campus-based education and outreach.

Contact Information:
Kerry Gabrielson, M.S.
Project Director
Trinidad State Junior College
600 Prospect St.
Campus Box 132
Trinidad, CO 81082
Tel: 719-846-5643
Email: kerry.gabrielson@trinidadstate.edu

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Regis University (2006–2009)

Program Description:
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for college students (Haas, Hendin & Mann, 2003, Haas, 2004, Jamison, 1999), and a rapidly emerging public health concern on many campuses. Regis University, The BACCHUS Network TM, and the Carson J Spencer Foundation request a total of $73,744 (year one) to build a unified, effective and sustainable suicide prevention and mental health awareness infrastructure through the SPEAK UP (Suicide Prevention, Education, Action, Knowledge: University Partnerships) initiative. Building from the needs assessment conducted at Regis University in the spring of 2006, this initiative will address diverse target groups including young adult men, students with preexisting mental health concerns, GLBTiQ populations (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, Intrasex, and Questioning), healthcare professionals/students, and faith communities. The three partners intend to develop a coordinate multi-pronged effort intended to impact the following three goals: (1) To develop a coordinated and knowledgeable suicide prevention networking infrastructure at Regis University, in Colorado, and nationally, (2) to develop social marketing campaigns to de-stigmatize mental disorders and increase help-seeking behavior, and (3) to increase the number of trained gatekeepers. Training, educational seminars, and informational materials will be piloted at Regis University and then disseminated through several comprehensive regional and national networks facilitated by The BACCHUS Network TM and the Carson J Spencer Foundation.

Contact Information:
Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas
Director
Leadership Development and Behavioral Health Promotion
Regis University
3333 Regis Blvd. F-12
Denver, CO 80221-1099
Email: sspencer@regis.edu

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Connecticut College (2006–2009)

Program Description:
Suicide is a major public health problem and has become an important topic on college campuses today. The purpose of the Connecticut College Campus Suicide Prevention grant proposal is to enhance services for students with mental and behavioral health problems by providing a comprehensive array of services within the campus community, using a public health approach, to enhance the ability to identify and assess students at risk and to raise the skill level of the various campus helpers to make appropriate referrals of students whose behavior indicates they are at risk for mental and behavioral health problems, including suicide. This will be achieved by developing training programs for students and campus personnel, by enhancing the existing campus networking infrastructure, by creating campus-wide policies and procedures to address campus crises including suicide, by providing psychosocial education in the form of seminars, by distributing materials to the college community and to families, and by creating links to community resources and suicide hotlines. Much of the focus will be on identification and referral of students with mental and behavioral health issues, including affective disorders, substance abuse disorders, and suicide. Thus, the proposed Connecticut College suicide prevention project will utilize handing to implement an education/public health approach to suicide prevention by promoting enhanced knowledge and awareness of suicide prevention throughout the campus and by enhancing and expanding existing networking infrastructure of campus support services for students.

Contact Information:
Janet D. Spoltore
Connecticut College
270 Mohegan Avenue
New London, CT 06320
Email: Janet.spoltore@conncoll.edu

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Florida Gulf Coast University (2006–2009)

Program Description:
Florida Gulf Coast University proposes an information and education project around suicide and two of its main contributors, alcohol abuse and depression. Our rapidly-growing suburban state university with enrollment over 7,000 is working to be proactive in preventing mental health crises and assisting students who need psychological and psychiatric services. The project we propose begins by contracting with an expert trainer to educate the front line gatekeepers: Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and Housing and Residence Life. The second group will be second line gatekeepers, including Student Affairs, medical, interested faculty, police, student leaders, and other identified groups. During the course of the year, CAPS and Prevention & Wellness Services (PWS) will develop and present small education outreach style programs to living groups, classes, faculty meetings, or other groups on request. Third, we propose to develop promotional items and advertisements to increase awareness of the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and campus resources for mental health services. Finally, we propose to develop two pamphlets, one for students and one for the parents of the student, educating them on warning signs, what to say, and how to refer. Although our proposal is limited in scope, we believe it will have a positive impact on our community.

Contact Information:
Judi Gibbons
Student Development Service
Florida Gulf Coast University
10501 FGCU Blvd. South
Ft. Myers, FL 33965
Email: jgibbons@fgcu.edu

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Edward Waters College (2009–2012)

Program Description:
Edward Waters College, a small historical black liberal arts college located in the urban core of the city of Jacksonville, Florida, will create a Campus Wide Suicide Prevention Program. Specifically, the college will develop an infrastructure within its existing Counseling Center to create a network of key gatekeepers, student leaders, and community behavioral health partners who will design and implement a strategic plan that will reduce or eliminate risk factors that predispose students to suicidal ideation and prevent suicidal attempts and other behavioral health problems. This network will be known as Project Care. Project Care’s major objectives include: a) providing QPR training to college administrators, faculty, staff, and student leaders; b) facilitating educational seminars and cultural diversity workshops to students, their parents, faculty, and staff on the myths and stigma associated with suicide and depression; c) promoting help-seeking behaviors within the student body by replacing the negative attitudes of the behavioral health systems held by many African-Americans; d) distributing informational literature on suicide and depression throughout the campus and at all organized student activities including Chaplain services; e) strengthening the relationships of off-campus community behavioral health providers; and f) providing educational information to parents on campus, over the Internet, and through mail, and establishing a Campus Wide Suicide Help Line.

Contact Information:
Elvera Carter
Project Care-PD
Edward Waters College
1658 Kings Road
Jacksonville, FL 32209
Tel: 904-470-8990
Email: evcarter@ewc.edu

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Daytona State College (2005–2008 & 2009–2012)

Program Description:
Daytona State College, Seminole State College, and University of Central Florida have formed the Project Suicide Prevention, Education, and Knowledge (SPEAK) consortium to conduct suicide awareness and prevention activities at these three commuter institutions. Located in East Central Florida, the partner institutions serve more than 60,000 students across 10 campuses in three counties. The three institutions will provide education and training to students, faculty, administrators, and staff. The project goal is to raise awareness through education of administration, faculty, staff, students, and their families of the colleges and universities located in Volusia, Flagler, and Seminole Counties in Florida of the signs of depression, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation in order to prevent suicides among college students. Project SPEAK will utilize educational seminars, develop and deploy an online training, provide gatekeeper training, create a stronger network of local resources through outreaches and an annual conference, and develop a video series on suicide prevention. Through the activities, the project team will meet six measureable objectives that include training 500 campus personnel, educating 800 students, and providing intensive suicide prevention training to at least 100 campus personnel and students. In addition, the project will establish an annual conference for higher education administrators and leaders, host an annual student festival, and produce a video series on suicide awareness and prevention for distribution on area public broadcasting stations. All of the objectives are designed to strengthen each institution’s infrastructure in decreasing suicide rates and increasing help seeking among students. At the conclusion of the grant activities, each institution will have a set of resources to continue suicide prevention and awareness education and training on their campuses. We are also very excited about involving the community creatively to address the very serious concerns of mental health and suicide. As a commuter college we desire to develop supportive networks within the community to assist and support our students when they are off of our campus. 

Contact Information:
Keith Kennedy
Project Director
Dean, Student Development
Daytona State College
1200 W. International Speedway Blvd.
Daytona Beach, FL 32114
Tel: 386-506-3562
Email: kennedk@daytonastate.edu

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Nova Southeastern University  (2009–2012)

Program Description:
The Nova Southeastern University (NSU) EPIC (Expansion of Prevention Initiatives Off-Campus) project seeks to implement a web-based training format that will include PowerPoint™ slides, narration, and dramatic video vignettes. The project will benefit faculty and students at NSU’s Student Education Centers (SECs) throughout Florida, as well as students involved exclusively in online education efforts. The goal is to create a human safety net that extends to the entire NSU community, providing training that explains the prevalence of student suicide, details the warning signs, and demonstrates how to help suicidal students access crisis and longer-term mental-health resources. The program will reach approximately 10,000 on-campus students, 6,000 graduate and undergraduate students who attend one of the six SECs, and the 10,000 students who study online within Florida and from other states. The newly developed web-based suicide prevention programs will be made available through an online virtual learning environment utilized for mandatory faculty training and student coursework. The EPIC Project goals are to: (1) improve the identification and referral of at-risk students at the SECs across Florida; (2) increase awareness of suicide risk and protective factors and reduce the stigma associated with help-seeking behaviors among students attending classes at the these SECs; and (3) increase awareness of suicide risk and protective factors and reduce the stigma associated with help-seeking behaviors among students completing online degree programs.

Contact Information:
Douglas Flemons, PhD
Director
Counseling Center
Nova Southeastern University
3301 College Ave.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314
Tel: 954-262-7050
Email: douglas@nova.edu

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Bethune-Cookman University (2011–2014)

Program Description:
Bethune-Cookman University, a historical black university associated with the United Methodist Church seeks SAMHSA funding to establish a Campus Wide Suicide Prevention Program. Specifically, the university will develop an infrastructure within its Office of Student Affairs to establish a network of key gatekeepers, including health, mental health, residence hall, and security staff, faculty, administrators, student government leaders and community behavioral health partners who will design and implement a strategic plan to diminish or eliminate risk factors that predispose students to suicidal ideation and prevent suicidal attempts and other behavioral health problems. This network of services will be known as Project STEPS-Survival Through Education Prevention and Services.  Project STEPS’s major objectivesinclude: a) providing  Q(question) P(persuade) and R(refer) training to key gatekeepers, students and their parents; b) facilitating educational seminars and cultural diversity workshops to students, their parents, faculty, and staff on the myths and stigma associated with suicide and depression, c) promoting help-seeking behaviors within the student body by replacing the negative attitudes of the behavioral health systems held by many African-Americans, d) distributing informational literature on suicide and depression throughout the campus and at all organized student activities; e) strengthening the relationships of off-campus community behavioral health providers, and f) providing educational information to parents on campus, over the Internet, through mail, and through a Campus Wide Suicide Hot Line.  Project STEPS has selected this “QPR” as the bedrock of its training/educational seminars and workshops for administrators, faculty, and staff, gatekeepers, the student body and their parents. The QPR approach to training utilizing various levels within a community is compatible with Project STEP’s philosophy of serving the campus where at-risk students reside as opposed to identifying individual students in need. QPR training recognizes that students who most need help in a suicidal crisis are the least likely to seek it, or demonstrate warning signs of their distress. Therefore, the project will have a special focus on entering freshmen and their parents or caregivers, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The projectwill serve an average of 1200 students and 150 faculty and staff over the life of the project. Programming will improve the quality and intensity of services for the target populations through implementation of “best practices” suicide prevention approaches, modified to address the unique needs of a predominantly African-American student body.  Services will be implemented through a system of care emphasizing a person-centered, strength-based approach to self harm with family involvement and peer support.  The project will promote a prevention delivery system that addresses student body, familial, faculty and staff needs anchored in HBCU tradition and in nearby communities where participants reside, to ensure continuity of care.

Contact Information:
Dwaun Warmack
Vice President for Student Affairs
Bethune-Cookman University
640 Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard
Daytona Beach, FL 32114
Tel:
Email: warmackd@cookman.edu

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University of Miami (2011–2014)

Program Description:
UM Unites to Prevent College Suicide by Transforming Campus Culture
The purpose of “UM Unites” is to transform the culture on UM’s diverse campus through leadership, social action and community engagement into a caring and help-seeking environment by increasing awareness and reducing stigma through leadership, social action and community engagement. The proposed project builds on the University of Miami’s strengths and existing campus suicide prevention activities: including Lifeguards, Canes Care for Canes, Counseling Center, Residential Life, Campus Police, Student Affairs Crisis coordinator and Student Assessment Committee. Universal and selective prevention efforts will be designed with input from key stakeholders, including members of various at-risk groups and implemented through community engagement.  All undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Miami with be targeted, which includes over 15,000 students of diverse backgrounds in terms of age, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and country of origin.  In addition, selective prevention activities will target various at-risk groups based upon the literature, the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and the demographics of the student body at the University of Miami.  These groups include those whose demographics place them at risk, such as males, including undergraduate seniors and graduate students, and other at risk groups such as people with disabilities and military family members and veterans.  Although UM has a number of existing suicide prevention efforts on campus, there are gaps: only three trained gatekeepers on campus; no formal suicide screening mechanism; no targeting Suicide Case Management Team; no formal Suicide Response and Prevention Plan; no formal Suicide Tracking and Event Surveillance System.  To address these gaps, UM Unites, a universal and selective suicide preventative effort, will collaboratively designed and implemented through community engagement.  All prevention strategies used will be culturally competent and evidence-based or designated best practices. The specific goals and objectives are to (1) implement gatekeeper programs to train students, staff, faculty, administrators and members of at-risk groups; (2) strengthen the infrastructure through implementing comprehensive screening linked to an intervention for all undergraduate and graduate students and creating a suicide response protocol and formal suicide tracking system; (3) expand educational seminars for undergraduate and graduate students; (4) promote the nation suicide hotline; (5) develop and disseminate culturally sensitive informational materials for students using multiple media and (6) develop and disseminate suicide prevention educational materials for families.  A well-designed assessment will ascertain if the preventative efforts are associated with increased service utilization among individuals with suicidal behavior, particularly at-risk groups; overall reductions in suicide ideation/attempts; greater knowledge among community members regarding suicide and its prevention; reductions in stigma in stigma associated with suicide and service use; and cultural transformation. 

Contact Information:
Lourdes Illa, MD
Associate Professor
Training Director
University of Miami
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Coral Gables, FL 33124
Tel: 305-355-7077
Email: lilla@med.miami.edu

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University of West Florida (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The University of West Florida (UWF) is an accredited, regional, comprehensive, public university serving nearly 12,000 students in the Northwest Florida region. UWF has proposed Suicide Outreach and Support (SOS), an integrated, coordinated, multi-level program that includes universal prevention strategies aimed at the general campus population, targeting male and female students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds and ages. Special emphasis will be placed on reaching gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) students and military-affiliated students, including active duty servicepersons, veterans, and military spouses and dependents. SOS is anticipated to provide an effective mechanism for early identification of students in trouble and effective response to their needs. Since 2008, UWF has experienced the suicides of eight students, creating a rapid awareness of the need for effective suicide prevention programming on our campus. Like most other campuses, UWF students report high levels of mental disorder and psychological distress. UWF is fortunate to have high-quality, integrated and coordinated mental health services, including 24-hour emergency services, available free of charge to students who present for treatment. Unfortunately, many individuals in acute crisis are not connected to mental health services, as highlighted by the completed suicides on our campus, none of which was connected to campus mental health care at the time of the suicide. Universal prevention strategies aimed at the campus at large and selective prevention strategies aimed at specific higher-risk groups are needed to reach the goal of building a solid foundation to deliver and sustain suicide prevention strategies to decrease suicide attempts and completed suicides among UWF students, with a special emphasis on GLBTQ and military-affiliated students. The proposed project aims to increase: 1) training to students, faculty, and staff on mental health promotion and suicide prevention, including suicide warning signs and risk factors, 2) collaboration among campus and community partners to deliver the message that suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility, 3) educational seminars and informational materials for students, faculty, staff, and family members on suicide prevention and identification and reduction of risk factors, such as depression and substance abuse, and 4) help-seeking among students and reduce stigma for seeking care for mental and behavioral health issues among students while increasing promotion of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The following activities will be implemented to achieve objectives: a) QPR Gatekeeper Training, a training program that builds skills for recognizing suicide warning signs and responding effectively to them, b) a Suicide Prevention Coalition to coordinate, design, and review policies and procedures related to suicide prevention and crisis response c) a Student Organization Network, to provide educational activities aimed at decreasing stigma associated with mental illness and help-seeking, and d) a Social Marketing Campaign to increase student knowledge and awareness of suicide warning signs and risk factors, with linkage to national suicide hotline resources.

Contact Information:
Dr. Susan Walch
Project Director
School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL 32514
Tel: 850-474-2273
Email: swalch@uwf.edu

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University of West Georgia  (2009–2012)

Program Description:
The Program foR Evaluation, InterVention, Education, aNd Treatment at the University of West Georgia (PREVENT@UWG) is a comprehensive program designed to prevent suicide and promote help-seeking behaviors for the general university population, and, most specifically, for students. PREVENT@UWG creates an opportunity to provide suicide prevention training to campus gatekeepers, who have recurring contact with students and are in the best position to make informed referrals. Specifically, PREVENT@UWG trains resident advisors, leaders of student organizations, and faculty and staff members, as well as first responders, to identify and respond to individuals who may be at risk for suicide, make appropriate and effective referrals, and break down barriers to help-seeking behaviors. PREVENT@UWG additionally delivers educational seminars, media campaigns, and outreach events designed to increase campus awareness of the issues surrounding suicide and to break down barriers to help-seeking behaviors. The program is supported by a Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs- (CACREP)-accredited counselor education program, a professionally staffed university counseling center, and a strong crisis response team. These fundamental supports combined with the model of preparing graduate students as the primary trainers assure the sustainability of PREVENT@UWG. PREVENT@UWG was developed by a cross section of individuals from the campus community and is supported by a community- and campus-based Advisory Board, the members of which are all committed to suicide prevention while promoting mental and behavioral health awareness. Utilizing a developmental approach to teaching and outreach, PREVENT@UWG has the ability to impact its participants and recipients across scope and time. As evidenced by the PREVENT@UWG website, our staff has developed a comprehensive resource for our campus community which offers a wide variety of services, informational resources, and connections to campus suicide prevention and mental health initiatives for our students, their families, and our staff and faculty. The website focuses on the diverse needs of our campus community through a broad range of types of inclusion.

Contact Information:
Mark Parrish, PhD
Project Director, Assistant Professor
Counseling and Educational Psychology
University of West Georgia
1601 Maple
Carrollton, GA 30118
Tel: 678-839-6117
Email: mparrish@westga.edu

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Emory University  (2009–2012)

Program Description:
Emory CARES, a universal and selective suicide prevention effort, will be collaboratively designed and implemented through community engagement. At-risk groups for selective efforts will be students who are: male, international, Asian descent, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/questioning, college seniors, and graduate/professional. Specific goals are to: (1) ensure that a diverse group of students, staff, faculty, and administrators receive gatekeeper training and design and implement gatekeeper programs targeted to Emory; (2) strengthen Emory’s infrastructure through enhancing orientation activities, creating a suicide response and prevention plan and a formal suicide tracking and surveillance system, and expanding the screening efforts; (3) create and provide innovative, culturally relevant videos, community presentations, skills training seminars, and courses for undergraduate and graduate/professional students; (4) have a suicide prevention hotline available 24/7/365 and enhanced helpline volunteer training; (5)develop and disseminate comprehensive, culturally sensitive, and easily accessible informational materials through innovative technologies on the web and brochures; and (6) create and disseminate educational materials (e-newsletters, brochures, website) for students’ families and friends related to suicide prevention. An assessment will ascertain if the prevention efforts are associated with increased service utilization among individuals with suicidal behavior, particularly at-risk groups; overall reductions in suicidal ideation/attempts; greater knowledge among community members regarding suicide and its prevention; reductions in stigma associated with suicide and service use; and cultural transformation.

Contact Information:
Nadine Kaslow, PhD, ABPP
Professor, Chief Psychologist, Special Assistant to Provost
School of Medicine
Emory University
80 Jesse Hill Jr. Dr.
Atlanta, GA 30303
Tel: 404-616-4757
Email: NKASLOW@emory.edu

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University of Hawaii  (2009–2012)

Program Description:
The University of Hawaii (UH) system with ten culturally diverse campuses across four
Hawaiian Islands requires a comprehensive system-wide infrastructure in order to implement campus-specific suicide prevention and mental health programs. Seven goals to address infrastructure development needs are: 1) assess system-wide and campus specific needs; 2) develop policies and procedures for responding to critical mental health events; 3) identify system-wide and community-based resources; 4) establish campus-specific resource networks; 5) increase awareness and knowledge of risk and protective factors for suicide attempts among gatekeepers; 6) increase awareness and knowledge of risk and protective factors for suicide attempts among students; and 7) develop informational, educational, and training materials regarding risk and protective factors for suicide attempts and mental health adjustment. That UH system’s uniquely diverse general student population overlaps significantly with at-risk target populations underscores the importance of embedding culturally sensitive processes for program development and implementation. Outcomes expected are centralized and campus-specific guidelines for responding to critical and general mental health needs, increased awareness and knowledge among gatekeepers and target populations regarding risk and protective factors for suicide attempts, increased help seeking behavior and utilization of mental health services among general and target populations, and improved access to care and resources for critical and general mental health needs.

Contact Information:
Allyson Tanouye, PhD
Project Director
Counseling & Student Development Center
University of Hawaii - Manoa
2640 Dole St. QLC 312
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel: 808-956-7927
Email: atanouye@hawaii.edu

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Trinity Christian College (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The purpose of the Trinity Christian College Campus Suicide Prevention Grant program is to significantly expand the suicide prevention and response: services of a faith-based college in the Chicago area. This purpose will be met by adding a key program leader as well as grant and matching resources so that this task of prevention and response can be assigned to and effectively implemented by our on-campus counseling services and be connected to community resources. By means of this grant, we will place a Suicide Prevention Specialist (the project director) in our Cooper Career & Counseling Center (CCCC), improve our Crisis Response Plan to include a clear focus on suicide, create a comprehensive Suicide Prevention Plan that will employ multiple strategies, establish the gateway for both on- and off-campus services in our Cooper Career and Counseling Center, and educate those providing clinical services to our students as to the suicide prevention plan.

Our program is ideally suited for our target population which shows evidence of eating disorders, depression and other affective disorders, relational issues (friends and dating, family-including divorce, adoption, and step-family issues), alcohol and drug abuse/addiction, pornography and/or gambling addictions, and identity/sexual orientation issues as well as other mental and behavioral health issues that may lead to suicide. Our student body is 8% African-American, 2% Asian, 5% Hispanic, and 1.5% non-resident aliens; the remainder are Caucasians. This program is characterized by cultural competence by all involved; the staff for this program includes an Hispanic project director and two other ethnic minority clinicians.

This program will effectively address our needs for more training across campus, better linkage to off-campus providers, better understanding of mental and behavioral health services without stigma, easier and more available access for help, better understanding of the warning signs of suicide, and the need to connect families to solutions. Finally, addressing these needs will, per the purpose of the CSPG program, enhance services for students with mental and behavioral health problems, such as depression, substance abuse, and suicide attempts, which can lead to school failure.

Illinois State Page

Contact Information:
Scott A. Smith, MA, LPC
Trinity Christian College
6601 West College Drive
Palos Heights, IL 60463
Email: Scott.Smith@trnty.edu

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Columbia College Chicago (2005–2008)

Program Description:
The purpose of the proposed project is to create and deliver training and support to students, faculty, staff, and parents to mitigate dangerous behaviors and prevent student suicide attempts. Columbia College Chicago ('Columbia') has not yet experienced a completed suicide on campus. However, Columbia has not been, until recently, a residential college. This means that students were most likely to express or manifest dangerous behaviors off campus. This, however, radically changed at the beginning of this academic year. 1489 students now live in dorm like facilities near to campus. In the three-week period between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2004 we detected 7 suicide threats. Five of these resulted in hospital visits; Columbia, as a specialized college in the arts, media, and communication, recruits a particular kind of student; these are eventual media makers, artists, filmmakers, thespians, product, game, and graphic designers, and all manner of creative careers. In the main, we can characterize Columbia's stud entry as being primarily creative. We also believe that creative people learn in different ways. Columbia, whose mission directly relates to culture and creativity, realizes the importance of human creativity. Our proposed project supports not only our need for comprehensive services, but also our institution's unique orientation.

Illinois State Page

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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Northeastern Illinois University (2005–2008)

Program Description:
Northeastern Illinois University requests funds to support a suicide prevention project designed to enhance campus awareness of factors related to campus suicide and related mental health issues, and to enhance institutional responsiveness to students at risk, strengthening the university's capacity to respond effectively to students in need. The project involves the development and delivery of workshops, seminars, and outreach presentations to faculty, staff, and students on suicidal risk factors, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, and other behavioral factors related to suicide. These outreach and consultation presentations are designed to increase overall awareness within the university community, to enable faculty members and students to identify those at increased risk of suicide and other mental health problems that can interfere with their academic success, and to refer these at-risk students to the university's Counseling Office or other sources of assistance. The project also involves the strengthening of the university's capacity to respond to students in this project proposes to enhance collaboration between the Counseling Office and those individuals who are most influential in students' lives, such as faculty members, families and student colleagues. Mechanisms to strengthen collaboration between key service units are also proposed, including the development of a Crisis Response Team and a formal Crisis Response Plan, the development and provision of specialized training about suicidal risk factors and effective intervention techniques for first responders in selected service units, and the enhancement of referral systems between faculty departments and the Counseling Office.

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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Art Institute of Chicago (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The purpose of SAIC CARES is to establish a formal, comprehensive, and responsive suicide prevention program at the school of The Art Institute of Chicago.  SAIC CARES intends to build upon our experience in previous national collaborative efforts to deal with depression and substance abuse on campus to initiate proactive and innovative efforts to engage the SAIC community in the identification of students at-risk of self-harm and other adverse consequences of untreated illness.  The goals of SAIC CARES are to 1) increase early identification of at-risk students, 2) to increase the help-seeking behavior of clinically depressed and anxious students, and 2) to develop a state-of-the-art case and care management-based tracking and surveillance system for students who have experienced severe mental illness and/or significant psychiatric crises/emergencies.  To meet these goals SAIC CARES will utilize a multi-faceted approach that will include training SAIC community members in Mental Health First Aid and a Dance/Movement-based suicide prevention program, providing to SAIC students a web-based self-help program for depression, THRIVE, that teaches skills from cognitive-behavioral therapy, instituting care management functions within Student Affairs, participating in the annual Healthy Minds study, and engaging parents  of new students with pre-existing mental health problems through the development of education materials and a summer webinar. 

Contact Information:
Joe Behen
Project Director
Counseling Services
116 S. Michigan Ave. 13th Floor
Chicago, IL Tel: 312-499-4271
Email: jbehen@saic.edu

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Purdue University (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The purpose of ALIVE (Awareness Linking Individuals to Valuable Education) @ Purdue is to prevent adverse outcomes (i.e., suicide, suicide attempts, academic attrition) for students with depression and suicide risk by increasing the likelihood that they will be connected with appropriate services. ALIVE @ Purdue is designed to initiate a comprehensive environmental change around attitudes toward help seeking. The theory-based project involves the innovative use of graduate students in counseling as educators to train resident assistants and provide direct outreach to students in residence halls, enhanced by the implementation of a supporting media campaign. ALIVE @ Purdue has the potential to reach 11,000 students a year with its message.

ALIVE Purdue has two specific goals. Goal one is to increase the likelihood that RAs will identify and refer at-risk students. Goal two is to improve the help-seeking behavior of at-risk students. To accomplish these goals, ALIVE @ Purdue will design and deliver RA training and direct outreach programs and a media campaign (Web sites, public service announcements, bulletin board kits, ads on Facebook.com, etc.) that address (a) knowledge about mental health and behavioral problems and resources, (b) attitudes toward help seeking, and (c) skills in referring at-risk students. The program uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB, Ajzen, 1991) as a theoretical framework to guide program development and evaluation. Graduate students in College Student Personnel and Counseling Psychology will be trained as ALIVE @ Purdue Educators to deliver RA training and outreach programs.

The division of program activities into these two goals, while necessary for clarity of program delivery and evaluation, obscures the synergistic nature of the ALIVE @ Purdue program. The components of ALIVE @ Purdue work together to increase RAs' effectiveness as mental health gatekeepers. The program provides RAs with enhanced training in the areas of suicide, suicide risk, and the art of referral; it also provides them with previously non-existing tools in the form of outreach programming and the media campaign. The media campaign creates greater receptivity on the part of students at risk to outreach efforts and to RA referrals.

ALIVE @ Purdue represents a collaborative effort between the academic programs in College Student Personnel and Counseling Psychology and Purdue's Counseling and Psychological Services center with support and cooperation from University Residences, Purdue's Assessment Research Center, and the Lafayette Crisis Center.

Indiana State Page

Contact Information:
Heather L. Servaty-Seib PhD
Purdue University
Beering Hall
100 North University St.
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2098
Email: servaty@purdue.edu

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Kansas State University (2006–2009)

Program Description:
UniversityLifeCafe.org is an innovative, interactive online program designed to engage college students in promoting mental wellness, particularly with regard to prevention of suicide, depression, and substance abuse, and encourage help-seeking behaviors so as to enhance positive experiences and success while in college. This online program complements a comprehensive campus-wide action plan including programming and training for students, faculty, and staff. UniversityLifeCafe.org goes beyond the typical, static, text-based web site of informational pages to engage college students at a deeper level with a complete online program of content and features that are relevant to their needs, interests, and comfort with using the Internet. The mental wellness approach to UniversityLifeCafe.org focuses more on how to be mentally healthy and less on the pathology of mental illness. This friendlier approach lays the groundwork for reducing the stigma of mental illness, and promoting help-seeking behaviors. The content of the program will be developed with a significant amount of student input through campus focus groups. Content will be delivered in a variety of formats, including text, audio, video, and podcasts. Where appropriate, students will be able to download content to their own computer for private use, for printing, or to download onto their MP3 players or iPods. Through the use of discussion boards, blogs, and the like, students will have the opportunity to connect with other students, discuss matters that are important to them, and otherwise learn that they are not alone in struggles they may experience while in college. The campus-wide programming and training efforts involve major student-oriented offices and organizations in reaching out to students and faculty/staff, while respecting the race, ethnicity, cultural background, sexual orientation, and belief system of every member of our campus community. If UniversityLifeCafe.org is found to be useful for students at Kansas State University, it could certainly be made available to other students across the nation.

Contact Information:
Barbara Pearson, Ph.D.
Psychologist (Counseling Services)
Project Director Campus Suicide Prevention Grant
Kansas State University
232 English
Manhattan, KS 66506
Tel: 785-532-6804
Email: bpearson@ksu.edu

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University of Kentucky - Lexington (2008–2011)

Program Description:
University of Kentucky Increasing Networks for Campus Awareness of Suicide and Emergencies (UK-IN-CASE) seeks systematically to create a safer and more caring campus community, to assist those at risk for suicidal behavior, and to support those who are concerned about the welfare of members of the community. This project will be accomplished by using a public health model, which expands on current campus practices to create a systemic program of suicide prevention and postvention that integrates service, policy, and referral networks.
UK-IN-CASE will more closely tie efforts between Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, and the university’s Medical Campus. UK-IN-CASE will expand current prevention and gatekeeper training efforts, increase awareness and availability of mental health services to students, and better link the various means by which students access support and mental health resources at the University of Kentucky (UK). The goal is to reduce both direct and indirect population risk while also sealing the cracks in high-risk or critical cases by improving appropriate referral, treatment, and followup. Suicide prevention efforts at UK, which have been led to date by the Counseling and Testing Center, have garnered substantial interest and commitment from both university leaders and front-line departments in developing solid partnerships and a more systemic structure for managing critical student incidents, mental health emergencies, and suicide. Major aspects of the program include the following:

1. Campus network and policy development in which a campus advisory group will be formed with representation from over 15 campus departments, offices, and academic units and eight community consultants, with the goal of creating a comprehensive, regularly assessed and evidence-based campus suicide prevention plan
2. Health communications and stigma reduction that aims to utilize social marketing and educational programs to educate students, their families, and community members, and decrease stigma and encourage help seeking
3. Gatekeeper and clinical training that seeks to expand gatekeeper training so that it is systematic in targeting specific populations of students, faculty, and staff, and to ensure that campus professionals and students in professional programs receive appropriate clinical training.

Evaluation and data collection efforts will aid in providing evidence of whether grant activities are furthering best practices. The project currently enjoys the support of multiple campus partners and university administration at the highest levels, as well as community partners who are committed to creating a systemic suicide prevention program at UK. The goal is to help our community “in case” of emergencies such as suicide, the type of event which no one on campus ever wants to happen. With increasing campus networks, campus policy, communications and clinical services create a caring campus community that will likely have ripple effects on regional mental health and suicide prevention.

Contact Information:
Carrie Schurtz
University of Kentucky
597 South Upper Street
Lexington, KY 40506
Tel: 859-257-6667
Email: clprob2@email.uky.edu

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University of Louisiana - Monroe  (2009–2012)

Program Description:
The University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) HELPS (Helping Educators and Learners Prevent Suicide) project will support a comprehensive and coordinated campus effort designed to educate faculty, staff, incoming freshmen and their families, as well as the student body at large, about the risk and protective factors associated with suicide and suicide ideation to help (1) increase the identification of students at risk for suicide or with mental and behavioral problems that may increase the risk of suicide, (2) appropriately respond to students at risk, (3) promote help seeking behaviors and recommend appropriate referral sources, and ultimately (4) prevent death by suicide as well as suicide attempts by ULM students.  The program will: (1) Educate and empower faculty, staff and police officers.Professional development seminars and courses will be developed along with paper and electronic awareness campaigns. (2) Enhance already existing services and training programs aimed at educating incoming freshmen and their families. Educational workshops will be developed along with culturally appropriate paper and electronic awareness campaigns. (3) Enhance already existing services and training programs aimed at educating the ULM student body at large.Culturally appropriate electronic and paper educational tools and awareness campaigns will be developed.

Contact Information:
Jana Sutton, PhD
Assistant Professor, Director of Clinical Services
Marriage and Family Therapy Program
University of Louisiana at Monroe
700 University Ave.
Monroe, LA 71209
Tel: 318-342-8197
Email: sutton@ulm.edu

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University of Maine (2008–2011)

Program Description:
The Touchstone Suicide Prevention Program provides suicide prevention for all 12,000 students of the University of Maine, a rural Land and Sea Grant College in Orono, Maine. Faculty, staff, and students will be trained to identify and intervene with students at risk. Web-based assessment, education, referral, and electronic communication will lower the barrier to service for students at risk while facilitating access to mental health and other University resources.

Two primary goals underlying all aspects of the Touchstone Program are 1) to reduce barriers to services and resources and 2) to promote both help-seeking behavior and engagement by students at risk or in need.

Primary activities will include: 1) Training ten percent of faculty and staff as "gatekeepers" capable of identifying, intervening and referring at risk students to professional health care providers and other university resources; 2) Selecting a group of students to participate in a class and receive training to become Touchstone Peers. These students will be trained as "gatekeepers"; work to decrease stigma associated with mental illness and help seeking; and help to shift the campus climate by increasing student engagement, belongingness and 3) Integrating web-based technology and electronic communication as a means to lower barriers and promote access to mental health services and information.

When building the Touchstone Suicide Prevention Program, we took into account that students who are engaged are less likely to attempt or die by suicide than those who are isolated and marginalized. Therefore, the Touchstone Suicide Prevention Program integrates crisis intervention with efforts to engage students who would not otherwise be engaged.

Contact Information:
Douglas P. Johnson Ph.D.
Project Director
Director of the Counseling Center and Peer Education Program
University of Maine
5721 Cutler Health Building
Orono, ME 04469
Tel: 207-581-1392
Email: Doug.Johnson@umit.maine.edu

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University of Southern Maine (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The University of Southern Maine suicide prevention program, USM CARES, will provide broad-based suicide prevention initiatives for the three campuses (Portland, Gorham, and Lewiston Auburn).  There will be three main initiatives targeting the approximately 9,000 traditional and nontraditional students.  The three targeted areas will include building a Student Support Network, training for faculty and staff in suicide prevention, and web-based services.  USM will implement a Student Support Program.  This program will identify the natural student helpers and teach skills of early identification, knowledge of resources, and helping and communication skills.  The component will enhance helping behaviors, promote student-to-student engagement, and reduce suicidal risk.  It will also increase civility and build protective factors in the community.  The program will focus on a number or affinity groups with special attention to the veteran student group and the GLBTQ community.  The Student Support Program is based on the work of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is considered a National Best Practice. Faculty and staff will be trained to identify, intervene, and refer students at-risk to Counseling Services and other mental health care providers as appropriate.  Two different trainings will be developed to meet the varying needs of participants.  The goal of this training is to increase knowledge of suicidal risk factors and to increase intervention skills.  Participants will also gain specific knowledge regarding the importance of engagement in building protective factors and reducing suicidal risk.  The training model will be based on Maine Youth Suicide Program and University of Maine Orono training models.  They were both previous recipients of SAMHSA grants. Web-based services will be expanded.  The grant will focus on expansion of the internet-based Interactive Screening Program (ISP) currently in place.  The goal of the ISP is early identification and self-referral of students not previously recognized as engaging in self-destructive harmful behavior.  The component is considered a best practice and is supported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  We will also create a separate website for USM CARES and included specific information regarding mental health issues for faculty and parents. Over the three year duration of the grant staff and faculty will be trained in 30 department meetings (10 per year), plus 130 staff and faculty receiving advanced training, ISP will be offered to all 9,000 students (at least 3,000 per year) and 150 (30 first year, 60 each year, 2nd and 3rd years) will be trained in the Student Support Program.

Contact Information:
Robert Small Psy D.
Clinical Director
University of Southern Maine
University Counseling Services
96 Falmouth Street, P.O. Box 9300
Portland, ME 04104
Tel: 207-780-5749
Email: rsmall@usm.maine.edu

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Towson University  (2009–2012)

Program Description:
Towson University Counseling Center (TUCC) will provide and evaluate gatekeeper training to students and campus personnel to assist in identifying students at risk for suicide and referring them for help. Project funds will enable TUCC to increase the number of educational seminars providing culturally competent information about suicide risk factors and reducing treatment stigma. The project will create and implement a comprehensive, strategic suicide prevention plan and ensure that the university response to students is as helpful as possible. Students who engage in behaviors raising concern regarding possible risk to self or others are brought to the attention of the Campus Student Concerns Committee.  The Committee will identify what actions need to be taken to best assist the student and protect the community. The grant will also provide for the development of infrastructure to support the committee.

The project will also include developing improved infrastructure and a referral database to assist potentially at-risk students to access services beyond the scope of what the TUCC provides. The database would allow TUCC providers to connect students more quickly to the most appropriate resource to fit their individual and culturally-specific needs. Enhanced visibility of the TUCC hotline and National Suicide Prevention Lifeline will provide access to crisis response to all students, including African American students and LGBTI students who are a focus of the project. Culturally-specific, web-based materials will also be developed for faculty, family members, and community gatekeepers.

Contact Information:
Bruce Herman, PhD
Assistant Director
Counseling Center
Towson University
8000 York Rd.
Towson, MD 21252-0001
Tel: 410-704-2512
Email: bjherman@towson.edu

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University of Maryland (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The University of Maryland College Park (UM) is highly concerned about addressing student's mental health needs and is committed to providing them with easily accessible services. To this end, UM proposes the Suicide Awareness Health Education and Training (SAHET) project, a comprehensive suicide prevention program that will unite a variety of stakeholders, namely, administrators, clinicians, student representatives and researchers toward a common goal: to address and reduce suicidal behaviors among our students. Led by the University Health Center (UHC), and supported by a team of multidisciplinary experts, the project will: 1) create and implement a comprehensive strategic suicide prevention plan with guidance from a Campus Advisory Board; 2) create research-based written and web-based informational materials to increase awareness among the campus community of the magnitude of suicidal behavior, recognition, risk assessment, social, family and mental health correlates, and materials that promote the reduction of stigma associated with help-seeking behaviors; 3) hold structured training programs for a broad spectrum of campus professionals who come in contact with students; 4) hold educational seminars for students and their parents on suicide prevention, risk assessment and crisis response. Pre-post assessments will be conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the implementation strategy and user-friendliness of materials as well as measure the knowledge gained in a number of topic areas. The ultimate goal of the project will be to centralize mental health referrals to the UHC that will be tracked through administrative data monitoring. We will also promote the linkage to already existing state and local hotlines as well as make available the wealth of information already available at the national level on depression and suicide awareness and prevention.

Contact Information:
Marta Hopkinson
University of Maryland
2134 Health Center
College Park, MD 20742
Tel: 301-314-8106
Email: Hopkinson@health.umd.edu

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Massachusetts Maritime Academy (2006–2009)

Program Description:
Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) requests funds to support a comprehensive suicide prevention program with the goals of educating the campus community on suicide risk behavior prevention, recognition, and intervention, developing and supporting healthy coping mechanisms among students to reduce suicide risk factors, and enhancing institutional resources for students at risk, strengthening the college's capacity to respond effectively to students in need.

MMA educates men and women to serve in the maritime industry. It is one of six state maritime colleges in the United States. Resident life is regimented, and all cadets are required to undergo rigorous training and spend a portion of their academic program at sea. These demanding circumstances coupled with the expected demands of college life present unique challenges for MMA cadets. The academic year 2004-2005 was the first time MMA offered a licensed counselor on campus for eight hours a week. While we are experiencing a positive impact as a result, there remains a vast gap between what exists and what is needed.

The objectives to achieve the goals of the MMA Comprehensive Suicide Prevention program are the following: (1) Tram key personnel as Gatekeeper trainers who will then train staff, faculty and students to respond effectively to students with mental health and behavioral problems; (2) create a critical incident response plan and networking infrastructure including, but not limited to a suicide hotline and a comprehensive website; (3) create a full time position for a counselor on campus increasing intervention options for students at risk and to provide educational seminars and mental health awareness opportunities for all students; (4) implement a comprehensive "Freshman 101" course focusing on developing healthy coping skills during the first semester at college that will decrease the stress of transition and ensure personal and academic success; (5) prepare and disseminate suicide risk informational and educational materials for students and families of students.

Contact Information:
Anne J. Fredrickson
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
101 Academy Drive
Buzzards Bay, MA 02532
Email: afredrickson@maritime.edu

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Tufts University (2008–2011)

Program Description:
Tufts Community Cares: A Suicide Prevention Programwas initiated in October 2008 to expand comprehensive campus efforts to promote help seeking and access to resources among students at risk of suicide. The grant goals are (1) increase awareness of signs and symptoms of mental health difficulties, student distress, and suicide risk; (2) decrease barriers to help-seeking, including stigma, lack of awareness, misinformation, or other factors that inhibit students’ utilization of mental health or other supports; and (3) develop an “ethic of care” within the campus community that builds the capacities of gatekeepers (students, faculty, staff, and families) to effectively facilitate access to counseling and other campus resources among students experiencing mental health difficulties. Since the inception of our grant, we have collected a variety of data, which has helped us better understand the prevalence of student mental health issues, attitudes and beliefs about help seeking, and utilization of both informal and formal sources of help among specific groups of students. We have participated in the 2007 and 2010 Healthy Minds study; conducted focus groups with students from six Tufts cultural centers (Africana, Asian-American, International, Latino, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender, and Women’s); interviewed faculty, staff, administrators, and student leaders; and added mental health questions to the 2009 and 2010 sophomore and senior surveys collected by the Office of Institutional Research.   Using a strategic planning process, we designed our own gatekeeper training model tailored to the particular needs of our campus. Our program integrates suicide prevention into broader outreach and training efforts in order to foster more opportunities for dissemination and to convey the message that suicide prevention is part of our overall mental health outreach efforts.  There are two basic training modules for faculty/staff and peer leaders, and content has been adapted to fit the unique attitudes and roles of the gatekeepers in relation to student mental health concerns. Participant evaluations are used as formative tools to continually modify the training.  Since the fall of 2009 we have trained about 700 Tufts students and 285 faculty/staff members. Working closely with campus cultural centers, residence halls, athletic groups, academic deans, advisors, and student health advocacy groups, we have provided a variety of other outreach and awareness activities, such as workshops, discussions, and student panels. We have aimed to develop activities in a culturally sensitive manner in order to reach targeted student groups. Materials created have included a guidebook for assisting students in distress for faculty, staff, and teaching assistants; a fact sheet about counseling for international students; and a Tufts Community Cares website.  We are in the process of developing a short video for students that aims to promote positive attitudes about help seeking and the use of counseling services.  In collaboration with the Tufts Parents Program we have held workshops for parents on mental health topics at university events such as matriculation day and parents weekend. Our program staff have also attended special resource fairs and orientation events for families of international and first-generation students. In addition, we have written several articles for the Parents Program electronic and paper newsletters on topics such as supporting a child who has come out, mental health issues of college students, and mental health resources. We are in the process of developing a web page that provides mental health and health information and resources especially for families.

Contact Information:
Marilyn Downs, Ph.D.
Director of Outreach
Tufts University Counseling and Mental Health Services
120 Curtis Street
Medford, MA 02155
Tel: 617-627-3360
Email: marilyn.downs@tufts.edu

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Boston University  (2009–2012)

Program Description:
The Boston University Suicide Prevention Program (BUSPP) has worked to develop and support a multimodal, comprehensive suicide prevention program with Boston University (BU) faculty, staff, parents, families, students, and targeted student groups including peer leaders, Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets, international students, Greek Life members, athletes, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender student communities on campus. We have worked to achieve all of the following:

1. Increase awareness, both universally and within these targeted populations, of the signs and symptoms of depression, student distress, suicide risk, and helpful university resources.
2. Increase help-seeking behaviors by decreasing barriers including stigma, lack of awareness, cultural barriers, and misinformation that inhibit utilization of mental health services and resources on our campus and within our community.
3. Enhance linkages within the university community between mental health services, substance abuse services, gatekeepers, faculty, staff, students, families, and relevant external community services in such a way that they are sustainable and promote a BU culture of wellness. 

The BUSPP activities in our first year have included the implementation of the evidence-based Student Support Network Training (a Cohort II product from Worcester Polytechnic Institute) that teaches students to be empathetic listeners and excellent referrers to university resources. To date we have trained 250 students. Educational seminars have been given to most departments on campus about campus suicide and mental health promotion. Suicide prevention materials including a ruler to measure the signs of distress have been developed and handed out at large university functions such as resident assistant orientation, freshman orientation, resource tables during finals, and student activities fairs. A website (http://www.bu.edu/mentalhealth) was unveiled last spring that depicts student voices sharing how important seeking help was to their ability to be well and succeed in college when they were distressed. This website was the product of the development of a mental health roundtable that meets regularly to increase communication and collaboration between university gatekeepers and students. Two webinars on mental health and suicide have been developed and delivered to all 4,000 freshmen through the software Student Health 101. Information about mental health distress and the opportunity to be involved in the Student Support Network Training has been disseminated through the monthly electronic family news. We have spent the year marketing with high visibility for the entire university, the importance of positive mental health and seeking help when distressed.  Our marketing activities have included presentations to the BU leadership councils, implementation of National Depression Screening Day across the university, and publication of several front-page articles in the university media. The goal has been to reduce the shame and stigma that students and staff feel. In addition, we have worked closely as Active Minds faculty advisors. Last spring we implemented a POST SECRET project that resulted in 1,000 BU students sharing their innermost thoughts and feelings on decorated postcards that were displayed at three sites across campus.

Contact Information:
Dori Hutchinson, ScD
Director of Services
Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Boston University
940 Commonweath Ave.
Boston, MA 02215-1203
Tel: 617-353-3549
Email: dorih@bu.edu

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University of Massachusetts - Amherst  (2006–2009 & 2009–2012)

Program Description:
The University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst Suicide Prevention program serves a population of more than 25,000 including internal key constituents such as Residence Life, UMass Police, the Dean of Students Office, faculty members, athletic coaches, members of student support services including support services for students of color, and members of University Health Services. Other external key constituents include members of our community provider network, community first responders, staff at large residential off-campus complexes where many students live, and parents and significant others in the students’ lives.  Our program seeks to expand the number of key constituencies, on and off campus, trained as gatekeepers and educated about suicide prevention and environmental strategies to reduce stigma associated with help-seeking behavior for mental health issues. We aim to continue to offer the gatekeeper training developed by SU Counseling Center staff, as well as to develop a comprehensive, structured, well-rounded, culturally sensitive outreach program. The UMass Suicide Prevention program is committed to provide culturally sensitive material and information through trainings and other prevention efforts. Additionally, the development of additional methods of disseminating knowledge about suicide prevention through online training, educational seminars, culturally responsive materials, and environmental strategies will help maximize the student’s mental health in order to reduce self-destructive behaviors and reduce risk for completed suicide.  Efforts will also focus on institutionalizing suicide prevention across the campus. We will be working to enhance basic suicide prevention and intervention skills across campus and off-campus constituencies, promote early recognition and intervention, develop and implement standardized and culturally responsive intervention and referral protocols and educational materials, and engage in suicide prevention efforts that are institutionalized on campus and in the local community to support sustainability. We will also be making training materials/videos more accessible to individuals that may be unable or unlikely to attend on-campus trainings. Collaboration with other campus agencies and student-led organizations has been crucial to the success of already implemented programs. With the help of the New Student Orientation Group, we developed a workshop for all new students and their parents focusing on self-care, staying connected, and being active on campus. We partnered with a peer education group called Not Ready for Bedtime Players to perform a skit on raising awareness about the signs and symptoms of suicidal ideation and the risk factors for suicide. Finally, with the help of the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health, we developed a campus-wide event around National Survivors of Suicide Day, and we are planning a stress management event to take place during finals week.

Contact Information:
Harry Rockland-Miller, PhD
Director
Mental Health Services
University of Massachusetts - Amherst
150 Infirmary Way
Amherst, MA 01003-9288
Tel: 413-545-0269
Email: rockmill@uhs.umass.edu

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Worcester Polytechnic Institute  (2006–2009 & 2009–2012)

Program Description:
A comprehensive approach to supporting at-risk students can only reach its potential in the context of an entire community of individuals at all levels committed to the well-being of each and every member. The Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Student Development and Counseling Center (SDCC) coordinates a campus-based approach involving all levels of the community in efforts to recognize and respond effectively to students in distress. One of the highlights of WPI’s comprehensive prevention program has been a unique and innovative peer training program developed by the SDCC that is called the Student Support Network (SSN). This six-week training has improved the network of student support on campus by empowering student leaders with critical knowledge, skills, and perspectives which help them identify and reach out to friends in distress and help those friends access available care. Over 250 student leaders have been trained in the SSN model in the past four years. WPI will significantly expand and evolve the SSN training model to incorporate stigma reduction elements drawn from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). In addition to the ongoing general peer training, the SSN training series will be implemented for key faculty and staff and will seek to actively recruit students who are known to underutilize mental health services, including international students, underrepresented students, and graduate students. Also, WPI will seek to develop and deploy population-based messaging aimed at mental health stigma reduction based on key core concepts identified in the ACT model. The SSN training model could be a valuable addition to suicide prevention efforts nationally. WPI continues to make the model available to others by listing it on the Suicide Prevention Resource Center Best Practices Registry, and the university will provide training and implementation consultation to interested campuses. Much of our grant-funded work has been dedicated to developing and evolving the SSN model. SSN is very different from other peer-oriented programs in that it assumes that there are pre-existing support networks on college campuses, and it attempts to identify, engage, and support those networks. The content of the six-week training series is, in our opinion, less important than the process of forming supportive connections within these networks. With these connections, key individuals within these networks are better supported in their efforts to help others and more likely to recognize and respond to individuals who would benefit from being connected to professional local and area mental health supports.

Contact Information:
Charles Morse, MA, LMHC
Director
Student Development & Counseling
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
100 Institute Road
Worcester, MA 01609
Tel: 508-831-5540
Email: cmorse@wpi.edu

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Western Michigan University (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The escalation of mental health difficulties and the steady level of suicide completions among college students prompt the call for effective university-based prevention efforts. This comprehensive suicide prevention plan for Western Michigan University seeks to modify aspects of the Air Force Suicide Prevention Program (2001) to a non-military, academic environment.

The Air Force program reduced the incidence of completed suicides and attempts among Air Force Personnel and is considered "highly effective" according to SAMHSA. The elements adapted include; the utilization of a community-based approach, the use of community leaders to carry out and support the program, the dissemination of information regarding risk factors, symptoms, and referral sources for depression and suicide, and the promotion of help seeking behavior among students at risk. Proposed activities include the training of campus leaders, the use of culturally sensitive social marketing activities to promote community responsiveness to mental health problems and promote help seeking, and the use of the web-based technology to educate the community. Special emphasis will be placed upon reaching underrepresented students through the use of their social connections and student groups.

Contact Information:
Delores Walcott
Western Michigan University
Univ. Counseling and Testing Center
3609 Canterbury Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Tel: 269-373-6436
Email: delores.walcott@wmich.edu

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Michigan State University (2009–2012)

Program Description:
Freshmen Accessing Community and Embracing Survival (FACES) is a comprehensive mental health initiative focused upon providing support and promoting student health and wellness through educational training and programming within the Michigan State University (MSU) campus community. Our campus has identified first-year students as a segment of the student population that is in need of increased support and resources with respect to emotional health and well-being. In order to address these issues for first-year students at MSU, the FACES program is a multifaceted, university-wide initiative that includes all of the following elements:

1. An educational initiative that helps facilitate the transition of all first-year students to MSU, both academically and psychosocially
2. Systematic training of selected faculty, staff, and student leaders in the Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR) protocol for suicide intervention and referral
3. The integration of on- and off-campus mental health services, including referrals to the MSU Counseling Center (MSUCC), Olin Health Center, and area hospitals
4. A media campaign aimed at increasing awareness of issues related to suicide prevention, increasing student help-seeking behaviors, and decreasing mental health stigma
5. Promoting awareness of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK) in all printed media material
6. A parent campaign intended to educate parents regarding depression and suicide, increase their communication with first-year students, and provide information about available mental health services 

The FACES initiative is progressing at a rapid pace in many areas. Our efforts to reach out to faculty, staff, and students for QPR gatekeeper training have been met with overwhelming support. Not only have we been able to conduct QPR gatekeeper training sessions with our traditional partners in Student Affairs and Residence Life, but we have also connected with other academic and administrative units as a function of our efforts with the FACES program. Our Student Risk and Review Committee has been diligently working to integrate mental health services on and off campus, as well as systematically educating and training the campus community on resources available for students in distress, above and beyond the referral process. Lastly, our media campaign to increase awareness, address issues of stigma, and increase student help-seeking behavior has been an increasingly positive experience as we work together with our campus partners in the field of health and risk communication. The collaboration with our experts in the health communication field has been fruitful in many ways, and we look forward to contributing to the promotion of student health and wellness as our media campaign reaches the campus community.

Contact Information:
Jan Collins-Eaglin, PhD
Director
Counseling Center
Michigan State University
207 Student Services Building
East Lansing, MI 48824
Tel: 517-355-8270
Email: jceaglin@msu.edu

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St. Cloud State University (2011–2014)

Program Description:
St. Cloud State University (SCSU) is committed to providing best practices health and wellness services to our students. We believe that college student suicide will be prevented through the creation of a caring campus community. By increasing help-seeking behavior, reducing stigma about mental health concerns, and providing tools to instill compassionate responsiveness to students across our University, we will create a community that is healthier and stronger for all. Suicide prevention is everyone’s concern. SCSU is committed to the safety and growth of the whole student. Our goals will be achieved through best practice online and in-person suicide prevention training, engaging educational seminars, and campus specific marketing for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. SCSU will develop customized educational brochures, posters, handouts, videos, and websites to educate students and family members as well as faculty and staff, about suicide prevention, risk factors, and protective factors. The University will utilize social networking, multiple social norms campaigns, a new student-led organization, student-initiated creativity, and a wide range of diverse campus leaders to help implement our goals. SCSU will also utilize existing nationally recognized programs including the Jed Foundation, SAMHSA, and mtvU. These programs will be infused into our existing efforts and the campus culture using multiple approaches and mediums. A Suicide Prevention Leadership Council (SPLC) will be formed to advise and guide the grant during its implementation and beyond completion of the grant period. Ongoing data collection, assessment, and performance analysis will be conducted to make ongoing enhancements and ensure effectiveness of all grant related programming. A Cultural Competency Advisor will be utilized to help advise on ways to sensitively infuse cultural competency throughout the various aspects of the grant. Each year of the grant we hope to train approximately six campus leaders on Gatekeeper training. These individuals will then train approximately one thousand students, faculty, and staff each year. To accommodate those students that are enrolled online, may have difficult schedules, or learn better in an online setting, we will also offer Kognito online suicide prevention training to 1,000 students each year. In total, SCSU plans to have approximately 2,500 students receive suicide prevention training each year for a total of 7,500 students trained by the end of the grant period. In addition, the number of QPR trained professional staff will increase from zero before the grant to approximately eighteen by the end of funding. The social norms marketing, large campus events, student organization, and other grant activities will impact thousands of students, faculty, and staff during the duration of the funding. The grant will provide the necessary groundwork to help SCSU sustain this very important work years beyond the grant period.

Contact Information:
Robert Reff, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean of Students for Chemical Health and Outreach Programming
St. Cloud State University
219 Atwood Memorial Center
720 Fourth Ave. South
St. Cloud, MN 56301
Tel: 320-308-6290
Email: rcreff@stcloudstate.edu

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Jackson State University  (2011–2014)

Program Description:
Jackson State University’s Metro Jackson Community Prevention Coalition in collaboration with the Latasha Norman Center for Counseling & Psychological Services will implement the Crisis Prevention Resource (CPR) Project. CPR is designed to prevent suicide attempts and completions through a comprehensive approach which will enhance the infrastructure of mental health service, suicide prevention, and crisis management on Jackson State University’s campus. The project targets, students, faculty, staff, administrators, and parents to reduce risk for suicide and promote protective factors. The project’s objective is to reduce suicide attempts and completions among: residential/first year students, upperclassman, racial/ethnic minority students, students with disabilities, international students, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and questioning (LGBTIQ) students on all JSU campuses. This objective will be achieved by providing education to students, faculty, staff, administrators, and parents designed to enhance knowledge, skills and abilities to identify and refer high-risk students; identifying and respond to early warning signs and risk behaviors; promoting protective factors; increasing students’ awareness of personal risk and protective behaviors; increasing the utilization of resources for counseling and wellness within the target populations; reducing stigma of mental and behavioral health conditions; engaging students, faculty, staff, parents and other key individuals and constituencies in leadership roles to facilitate suicide prevention within the target populations; and promoting a wellness program on all campuses, specifically targeting the high-risk populations. Specific activities implemented include: providing gatekeeper training to all residence hall staff, student leaders, and paraprofessionals; adapting and providing gatekeeper training for individuals serving the target populations; producing a social marketing campaign to educate gatekeepers, students, and parents; establishing and sustaining a university-wide suicide prevention coalition with representation by students, gatekeepers, faculty, staff and parents involved with the target populations; organizing an active group of students representing the target populations as peer educators and project consultants; promoting and providing an online wellness assessment; and promoting and providing a counseling center-based 4-session wellness group on all campuses.

Contact Information:
Velesha Williams
Project Director
Crisis Prevention Resource Project
Jackson, MS Tel: 601-979-1400
Email: velesha.p.williams@jsums.edu

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Mississippi State University - Meridian (2006–2009 & 2009–2012)

Program Description:
The Mississippi State University-Meridian (MSU-Meridian) Campus Suicide Prevention Program proposes to sustain the current components of our secondary suicide prevention program and build on primary wellness-based suicide prevention components.   MSU-Meridian Campus has a contract with a local EAP provider so that campus students and their families have access to free unlimited outpatient mental health services. The MSU-Meridian Campus secondary suicide prevention program components that will be sustained include: (1) mental health network between campus and community mental health services; (2) crisis response plan to include responses to suicide; (3) integration of Lifeline throughout program; (4) informational materials for students and families; (5) gatekeeper workshops; (6) depression, substance abuse, and suicide online education mini-courses; (7) College Response online clinical screening; (8) anti-stigma artwork series; and (9) student peer helper program. The wellness-based primary suicide prevention components that will be added include: (1) Indivisible Self Model of Wellness (Myers and Sweeney, 2004) that includes seventeen components of wellness grouped into five main factors of self; (2) monthly activities designed to develop specific wellness components (for example, exercise may include the campus activity of “yoga class before evening class”); and (3) wellness component online mini-courses that will further develop wellness through additional exercises/activities.

Contact Information:
Darren Wozny, PhD
Professor
Counselor Education
Mississippi State University - Meridian
1000 Highway 19 North
Meridian, MS 39307-5799
Tel: 601-484-0166
Email: dwozny@meridian.msstate.edu

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University of Southern Mississippi (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The University Counseling Center, a comprehensive mental health service provider of the University of Southern Mississippi, plans to improve and enhance its educational, training, and evaluation components needed to promote suicide prevention. This project focuses on clinical, educational and training interventions that will promote suicide awareness and decrease the occurrence of suicidal attempts and suicide of students at USM. This project includes campus activities that will highlight mental health issues and decrease the stigma surrounding asking for help. In addition, the gatekeepers of the University will be provided with training to improve response to students in crisis. This Suicide Prevention Project will include the formation of a collaborative task force that will create and implement a campus response plan to reduce suicide on campus. Through this project, the UCC will also improve data collection and evaluation that will guide its clinical, educational, and training responsibilities around the issues of mental health at USM.

Contact Information:
Deena L. Crawford, LMSW
Interim Director, Counseling Center
Project Director- Suicide Prevention Grant
University of Southern Mississippi
University Counseling Center
118 College Drive, #5075
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001
Tel: 601-266-4829
Email: deena.crawford@usm.edu

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Linn State Technical College (2006–2009)

Program Description:
Linn State Technical College (LSTC) embraces its state mandated mission "to prepare students for profitable employment". In order to fulfill this mission, LSTC must insure the safety of its students, including both mental and physical well being of each student. Enhancing current resources, training and programs, the collaborative development with the Community Health Center of Central Missouri and providing easier access to information on the LSTC website will assist the college in supporting this mission. In order to increase awareness of suicide risk factors, Linn State Technical College would like to emulate the suggested school responsibilities in suicide prevention as recommended by the Center for School Mental Health Analysis and Action (CSMHA). These-include (1)Ensuring that school staff are knowledgeable of warning signs for suicide and informed about guidelines for reporting concerns about students (2) Developing policies for notifying parents of suicidal youth including referrals and recommendations for how they should intervene (3) Offering consistent counseling and support by school staff for suicidal students.

Data provided by the Missouri Department of Health supports the fact that Linn State Technical College students are among the highest percentage of gender, race and classification to commit suicide. Missouri's suicide rate is the highest in Region VII, which includes the states of Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in Missouri, primarily by the method of choice of firearms. Men account for 78% of completed suicides. White, non-Hispanics account for the highest percentage of completed suicides at 93%. There are more suicides in Missouri than homicides, averaging two people dieing by suicide everyday. Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death of adults, the third leading cause of death for kids, and the second leading cause of death for College students. In the past 60 years, the rate has quadrupled for males 15 -24 years old and has doubled for females of the same age. Linn State Technical College would like to provide the best resources and training to its employees, students and student's families in order to reduce the probability of suicide as well as promote positive mental health on its campus.

Contact Information:
Jason Hoffmeyer
Linn State Technical College
One Technology Drive
Linn, MO 65051
Tel: 573-897-5110
Email: jason.hoffmeyer@linnstate.edu

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Northwest Missouri State University (2005–2008 & 2006–2009 & 2008–2011)

Program Description:
Northwest Missouri State University‘s program to foster the healthiest learning environment possible for its students through the collaboration of the university and its partners in the domain of suicide prevention and the promotion of mental health services. Through education, training, policy development, and collaboration, Northwest’s program aims to reduce suicides and suicidal behaviors on its campus. The need for comprehensive suicide prevention efforts at Northwest is evident through data showing high levels of mental health issues and suicide-related behaviors among its students. For example, in a recent campus survey (2006, N = 475), significant percentages of students reported feeling either hopeless (64 percent) or so depressed that it was difficult for them to function (37 percent). Moreover, 17 students entered into Northwest’s Suicide Risk Assessment Protocol during the 2006–2007 academic year. Ten of these students had made serious suicidal gestures.    The program’s five goals are founded in best practices and, when implemented together, will have an impact on university policy and processes, the utilization of mental health services at Northwest, and the knowledge and attitudes regarding mental health issues and suicide among Northwest students. These goals are as follows:

1. Help students deal with the rigors of college life in healthy ways.
2. Destigmatize mental health issues and help-seeking behavior.
3. Educate students on suicide-related issues.
4. Strengthen Northwest policies concerning students in crisis.
5. Forge strong campus/community partnerships centered on suicide prevention efforts.

Northwest Missouri State University is a four-year state-assisted regional university of 6,500 students in Maryville, Missouri, a community of 11,000 residents in rural Nodaway County. The composition of its student body is predominately rural, with an ethnically diverse population of less than 11%. The target population of this proposal will be the entire student body, though high-risk groups will be targeted for selected interventions. 

The Northwest Suicide Prevention Project is bringing together faculty, staff, and students at Northwest to reduce suicide and suicide-related behaviors and to promote positive mental health for everyone. The support has been tremendous, and we feel we are on our way to creating an even stronger campus culture where all students can flourish. 

Contact Information:
Jennifer Kennymore, MPH
Project Director
NWMSU Suicide Prevention Program
Northwest Missouri State University
800 University Dr.
Maryville, MO 64468
Tel: 660 562-1348
Email: Jenken@nwmissouri.edu

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University of Missouri-Columbia (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The Wellness Resource Center at the University of Missouri (MU) will implement a comprehensive suicide prevention effort that increases individual students’ resiliency and increases the capacity of the campus community to take action to promote students’ emotional health and reduce the likelihood of suicide with special emphasis on high risk populations including lesbian, gay and bisexual students and military family members and veterans. As programming is solidified at MU, the Partners in Prevention (PIP) coalition, a consortium of 20 college campuses across Missouri, will collaborate with MU to further expand this programming onto college campuses across the state, integrating lessons learned from experiences in implementation and administration at MU. The proposed project mirrors the objectives of the Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention grant by increasing the amount of training to students, faculty, and staff through the Ask Listen Refer and QPR training programs, increasing collaboration through the Suicide Prevention Task Force and the PIP Suicide Prevention Planning Group, increasing the number of educational seminars and informational materials through new poster campaigns and the statewide ―Call to Action‖, and increasing help-seeking among students and promoting the Suicide Prevention Lifeline through Wellness Coaching initiatives and on-line training. The statewide efforts will include the implementation of a statewide Call to Action for campus senior administrators. This Call to Action will include the publication of a statewide blueprint for campuses to use to guide the adoption of evidence-based approaches previously piloted at MU. All efforts of the proposed project will be evaluated using a multi-modal approach, including qualitative and quantitative measures.

Contact Information:
Kim Dude, M.Ed, MACSAPP
Director of the Wellness Resource Center
Assistant Director of Student Life
University of Missouri, Columbia
G202 MU Student Center
Columbia, MO 65211
Tel: 573-882-4634
Email: dudek@missouri.edu

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University of Nebraska - Kearney (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The University of Nebraska Kearney, founded in 1905, is Nebraska's public, residential university that is distinguished by its commitment to be the state's premier institution of undergraduate education. UNK is home to 6,382 undergraduate students from 37 states and 50 countries. UNK's Counseling & Health Care Department supports the academic mission of the University of Nebraska Kearney by providing professional mental and physical health prevention and intervention services, thereby enhancing students' intellectual proficiency. This however is a difficult task when students view "free services" as "less service" and opt not to utilize Counseling & Health Care. Since the Fall of 2004, UNK's Counseling Care has seen a total of 220 students due to a "depressed mood," making up thirty-six percent of all students seen by counselors during that time frame. Of these students, fifty-three percent are clients with suicide ideation and twelve percent have been hospitalized for attempting suicide, with one student committing suicide in the Spring of 2005. Several notable assessments; including the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment, provides data showing that a high percentage of UNK students have or do experience some form of mental health illness. However, many of these students do not seek help due to the stigma associated with mental health illness. Surveys also show that many students arrive on campus already suffering from depression, anxiety and other mental health illnesses. Therefore the target population for this project is first and second year students along with the international student population living on campus. The goals of the UNK Comprehensive Suicide Prevention program are to: (1) increase the number of students seen for mental health issues by 10 percent through physically connecting UNK's Counseling and Health Care offices; (2) enhance UNK's current crisis response plan through training opportunities for the UNK community and those who are actively involved with executing the plan; (3) enhance student services by creating a networking infrastructure to link UNK with at least two providers from the broader community who can treat mental and behavioral health problems; (4) recruit and train nineteen peer counselors to respond effectively when dealing with mental and behavioral health issues; (5) to create a National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) campus organization in order to diminish the stigma and barriers associated with help-seeking behaviors for mental and behavioral health issues by 10 percent within the first year of the organizations existence. To meet these objectives, we propose to conduct gatekeeper training; develop and implement education seminars; provide wellness training to undergraduate peer counselors, disseminate information to parents, and create linkages to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Contact Information:
Kristin Steinbeck
Project Director
University of Nebraska, Kearney
2510 11th Avenue
MSAB 144
Kearney, NE 68849
Tel: 308-865-8248
Email: steinbeckka@unk.edu

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Keene State College (2005–2008)

Program Description:
The KSC suicide prevention project is a comprehensive, multi-level program designed to educate the college community about suicide and how to respond to someone who is suicidal, to reduce the stigma of counseling, to coordinate prevention and response efforts with the town and state organizations, and to intervene with at-risk students to promote their safety and well-being.

The educational component is multifaceted and includes targeted gatekeeper training, educational seminars, and development of a variety of materials including information about suicide and resources, postvention materials, information for parents, and stigma reduction materials such as stress balls, posters, bookmarks, etc. Educational seminars may be coordinated with outside agencies such as NAMI and include seminars by past and present students about their mental health challenges and triumphs and large group talks on overcoming depression/suicidal thinking and/or happiness.

Response to at-risk students is also multifaceted. It includes working with the local mental health agency to coordinate the assessment of high risk individuals and coordinate treatment upon release and developing policies and procedures for mandated safety sessions. At risk students are defined as those who are actively suicidal, i.e., have either made a suicide attempt or are overtly threatening suicide and students who have been hospitalized or held in protective custody because of alcohol poisoning.

New Hampshire

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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Saint Peter's College (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The proposed Suicide Prevention Project at Saint Peter's College is a collaborative project among the following agencies: (1) Saint Peter's College (2) Asian Resource Center for Families & Children, and (3) Best Practices for Children & Families (Servicio Mejores para Ninos y Familia). In addition, Saint Peter's College has a formal affiliation agreement with Jersey City Medical Center for the latter to provide medical, mobile crisis intervention service and inpatient psychiatric treatment.

Saint Peter's College, located in Jersey City, has the unique distinction of being the only private college in New Jersey that is a U.S. Department of Education-designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). Saint Peter's College serves a predominantly local student pool, with more than 40% living within 10 miles of the college's main campus in Jersey City, New Jersey. The total college enrollment is 3,282 with the following racial/ethnic breakdown: 40.6% White Non-Hispanic, 28.6% Hispanic, 19,7% African American, 7.1% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 0.3% American Indian/Alaskan Native. Jersey City, the second largest city in New Jersey, has an ethnically diverse population of 240,055: 34.0% White, 28.3% Black, 16.2% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 21.1% Other Race (US Census, 2000). In 2000, 28.3% of the population was of Hispanic origin.

The primary goals of the proposed project are to prevent suicide among students attending Saint Peter's College, and reduce problems associated with suicide including depression and alcohol abuse. These goals will be achieved through the implementation of the following activities: an enhanced and more culturally sensitive training program for peer educators, faculty and staff to respond to students with mental health and substance abuse problems; a cadre of trained peer educators to assist current counseling staff in the implementation of project activities including a suicide response plan patterned after the University of Idaho's Suicide Behavior Response Plan; annual ethnic diversity & mental health wellness fair; and educational workshops on suicide prevention, identification, and reduction of risk factors. A unique feature of the proposed project is an active outreach to families of Hispanic students to educate them on the college experience (to enhance Hispanic student retention); and to teach them skills to reduce parent-child conflicts (a major cause of suicidal behaviors among adolescent Hispanic females). A two-part evaluation (process and outcome) will be conducted by Dr. Fred Andes, Associate

Contact Information:
Ronald Becker
Saint Peter's College
2641 Kennedy Blvd.
Jersey City, NJ 07306
Email: rbecker@spc.edu

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New Mexico Highlands University (2009–2012)

Program Description:
New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) is a state-supported coeducational institution and a federally designated Hispanic-serving institution in Northern New Mexico. The NMHU Campus Suicide Prevention (CSP) Project will serve the 2,399 multi-ethnic students, median age 23, enrolled at the main campus in Las Vegas. Many NMHU students come from geographic areas and socioeconomic backgrounds that put them at risk for mental and behavioral health problems linked to suicide. All six CSP activities will be included in a comprehensive approach. The NMHU CSP Project is a public health approach to collaboration among the university and the Sangre de Cristo Community Health Partnership (SDCCHP) and the New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project (NMSIP). Results of our comprehensive approach and assistance to the NMHU community will enhance attitudes and abilities for effective efforts and services for students with mental and behavioral health problems, such as depression and substance abuse that put them at risk for suicide and suicide attempts. The project will utilize participatory, and collaborative, methods of evaluation, which have proven successful as an element of larger community and system change.

Contact Information:
Dr. Fidel Trujillo
Dean of Student Affairs
Principal Investigator
New Mexico Highlands University
P.O. Box 9000
Las Vegas, NM 87701
Tel: 505-454-3020
Email: ycduran@nmhu.edu

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University of New Mexico (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The University of New Mexico (UNM) proposes a Comprehensive, Coordinated, University wide
Suicide Prevention Project (CCUSPP) with the goal of reducing the number of attempted and completed suicides among the student population, with emphasis on those that are at greater risk including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LBGTQ) youth. CCUSPP will be led by the Office for Equity and Inclusion’s LGBTQ Resource Center in partnership with other UNM Departments such as Student Health and Counseling, Agora Crisis Center and the Center for Rural and Community Behavioral Health. External partners include the NM Suicide Prevention Coalition and the NM Department of Health. The project will feature two main components: (1) Development of a coordinated, comprehensive prevention and response plan; and (2) Extensive gatekeeper training and dissemination of information. Stakeholder groups to be targeted for training include students, faculty and staff, campus health and mental health professionals, family members, and others that have contact and influence with the target populations including law enforcement, residence hall advisors, student government, and student organization leaders. CCUSPP will focus on the main campus in Albuquerque as well as branch campuses in Gallup, Taos and Valencia. The project is guided by six objectives:

• Objective 1: Prevention and Response Plan. By the end of the grant period, the project will improve collaboration among internal and external departments and agencies to develop and implement a coordinated prevention and response plan including a referral network.
• Objective 2: Gatekeeper Training. Each year, the project will increase the number of individuals on campus trained in suicide prevention including (a) faculty and staff; (b) Resident Assistants; (c) Student Health and Counseling Staff; (d) Community Primary Care Providers; (e) Community Behavioral Health Providers; (f) Campus Police Officers; (g) Other University Stakeholders (e.g. library staff, CAPS tutoring, residence life, student services, resource centers); and (h) university students for peer support.
• Objective 3: Improved Knowledge and Confidence. Each year, at least 80% of gatekeeper training participants will improve their level of knowledge and confidence about suicide prevention.
• Objective 4. Training of Trainers. Each year, at least 10 UNM staff will be trained to provide gatekeeper training to university stakeholders.
• Objective 5. Dissemination of Information. Each grant year the project will add to the number of individuals exposed to mental health awareness messages including students, faculty, and health and mental health providers.
• Objective 6. Help-Seeking Behavior. Each year, university students will exhibit increased help-seeking behavior evidenced by accessing mental health resources on campus, accessing local Agora crisis line, and accessing national Lifeline.

Contact Information:
Josephine De Leon
Project Director
Office for Equity and Inclusion
Albuquerque, NM Tel: 505-277-0834
Email: jdeleon@unm.edu

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New Mexico State University (2011–2014)

Program Description:
“A Comprehensive Approach to Suicide Prevention at New Mexico State University”
New Mexico State University (NMSU) population 18,552 (main campus) is located in Las Cruces, New Mexico population 95,000. Within the past year four students ended their life by suicide making the rate 33 per 100,000. New Mexico ranks third in the nation with a suicide rate of 20.4 per 100,000. Currently the NMSU Counseling Center provides a two pronged approach to suicide prevention: individual and group therapy which includes a crisis walk in service and the Crisis Assistance Listening Line (CALL) which is a warm line. The Counseling Center is proposing a more systemic comprehensive approach to include a campus wide Gatekeeper training that is culturally sensitive using the Livingworks model of ASIST and safeTalk in which the trainer matches the trainee in terms of certain demographic characteristics such as ethnicity, sexual orientation and military status. The NMSU Counseling Center proposes to train 30 key staff, faculty and students from various departments such as Ethnic Programs, the Sexual and Gender Diversity Resource Center and the
Student Veterans Office in the LivingWorks model of ASIST and safeTalk. These trained individuals will further train 1,000 students using the 2 hour safeTalk model. In addition the NMSU Counseling Center is proposing that the Crisis Assistance Listening Line is sustained and improved through SAMSHA funding including obtaining accreditation from the American Association of Suicidology thus enabling the CALL to become a part of larger the network National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK. Outcomes pertaining to the CALL such as number CALL Responders (those answering the warm line) trained, number of calls received, caller issues, etc., will be tract using iCarol a web based program that is specific to call lines. Outcomes specific to the Counseling Center such as ethnic demographics and degree of suicidality will be tract using Titanium a web based program specific to university counseling centers. Training evaluations will be used for both the CALL trainings and the LivingWorks trainings.

Contact Information:
Debra Darmata
Project Director
Counseling and Student Development Center
2220 Dakota #B
Las Cruces, NM 88001
Tel: 505-795-8470
Email: ddarmata@nmsu.edu

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Orange County Community College (SUNY Orange)  (2011–2014)

Program Description:
Project Up! at SUNY Orange is a comprehensive suicide prevention program designed to increase awareness and promote the use of mental health services. The program targets all of the college’s 7,223 students and 1,100 faculty/staff members and will targeted selected at-risk populations. The goal is to create an informed and alert campus population to help lessen the risk of student suicide and other self-destructive behaviors. The approach will be comprehensive and will coordinate with existing campus- and county-based programs for the following high-risk groups: students with disabilities, substance abusers, and those who are either low-income, first-generation, underprepared, and/or experiencing cultural dislocation. Special attention will be directed toward returning veterans or their relatives, and students of LGBT orientation. The project will 1) Increase Awareness and Reduce Stigma, 2) Broaden Expertise and Cultural Competence, and 3) Increase the Social Support Networks for Targeted At-Risk Populations. The goals will be achieved through the integration of suicide prevention information into existing orientation programs, special trainings, the distribution of literature (print and online); the establishment of peer support networks; and through partnerships with the Orange County Department of Mental Health and the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center.
 

The AVP for Enrollment Management will serve as the Director of Project Up! Oversight will be provided by an Advisory Council comprised of representatives from all college departments involved in mental health, including the VP for Student Services, Director of Advising and Counseling, Director of Student Health Services, Director of Student Support Initiatives, the Disability Specialist, and the OC Mental Health Support Specialist. The external project partners will also sit on the Advisory Council. The college will hire a part-time program coordinator and a part-time technician to assist with grant execution, data collection and reporting requirements.

Grant activities will run from September 2011 through September 2014. Year 1 will build general awareness. Year 2 will target at-risk populations and year 3 will ensure future program sustainability. By September 2014, the program will have: 1) created a campus environment that is 100% informed about suicide prevention, 2) established peer support groups that meet regularly, 3) institutionalized an ongoing literature program, 4) promoted the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and 5) developed a centralized system of tracking and analyzing mental health data for the purpose of better aligning college services with student needs. The project expects to serve 5,000 individuals each year for a combined project total of 15,000.

Contact Information:
Gerianne Brusati
Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management
Orange County Community College
115 South St.
Middletown, NY 10940
Tel: 845-341-4060
Email: gerianne.brusati@sunyorange.edu

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Buffalo State College  (2011–2014)

Program Description:
Buffalo State Cares will be a comprehensive campus suicide prevention program that builds on Buffalo State College’s (BSC) current efforts by enhancing campus and community outreach about suicide in order to create a social climate that encourages detection of suicidal ideation/ behavior, promotes referrals to mental health services, and results in increased help-seeking behavior by students. A variety of outreach activities to students and faculty are proposed: a PSA campaign to increase awareness of the National Suicide Prevention LifeLine, a project website, and new informational materials. Outreach to neighborhoods surrounding the campus where students and their families live and work will be undertaken, as well as the creation of innovative and culturally competent online and in-person training for students, faculty, families, and community partners about suicide prevention, using the QPR model as its basis. Special attention will be paid to high-risk groups on campus. Since the clinicians currently conducting this training are also experiencing a high demand for their counseling services, thereby limiting outreach and education efforts, funding for an outreach worker will help alleviate the burden on them, allowing more training to occur. Additionally, Buffalo State Cares will increase collaboration among stakeholders to better support crisis management procedures for students with mental and behavioral health problems. Finally, a symposium will be planned at the end of the funding period to reflect upon program successes, to share information with campus/community partners and SUNY affiliates, and to plan for sustainability. Buffalo State Cares will support SAMHSA’s first strategic initiative and the JED Foundation’s/Suicide Prevention Resource Center’s Comprehensive Approach to Campus Suicide Prevention.
BSC has undertaken a strategic plan to strengthen the campus community through a focus on caring and civility, which requires students to commit to being responsible for their own and other’ actions. The Buffalo State Cares suicide prevention program reinforces this concept and will derive benefit from this campus-wide initiative. Various administrators, faculty, and student groups have worked together in developing this proposal to integrate suicide prevention awareness into the campus infrastructure. Commitments have also been received from a wide array of community partners.
Measurements of how many individuals will be served quarterly, annually, and throughout the lifetime of the project will be undertaken for pre/post-interventions, for all educational components of the program, and for all services rendered. Buffalo State College intends to reach approximately 20% of its student population annually, with the program affecting 60% of students by the end of the grant allocation.

Contact Information:
Joan McCool
Director
Counseling Center
219 Weigel Health Center
Buffalo, NY 14222
Tel: 716-878-443
Email: MCCOOLJL@BuffaloState.edu

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Stony Brook University (2008–2011)

Program Description:
Stony Brook University seeks to develop a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to preventing suicide by creating a network of knowledgeable and effective gatekeepers across the campus and effectively reaching Asian American students with critical information about suicide, stress management, and ways to access campus resources. This project directly engages key faculty and staff stakeholders in suicide prevention through implementation of an established gatekeeper training program (QPR). In addition, this project reaches out to a largely overlooked, high-risk population by collaborating with Asian American faculty and staff mentors to provide educational seminars. These seminars contextualize suicide and depression using language and concepts which are more consistent with the beliefs and values of Asian American students.

Contact Information:
Smita Majumdar Das, Psy.D., MBA
Project Director
SUNY-Stony Brook
216 Stony Brook Union
Stony Brook, NY 11794
Tel: 631 632-9666
Email: smita.majumdar@stonybrook.edu

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Syracuse University (2005–2008)

Program Description:
Syracuse University has been increasingly concerned with the serious and diverse mental and behavioral health problems among its students. The belief that student isolation and difficulty in tolerating emotional distress significantly contribute to these mental health difficulties have prompted our Center to develop two specific prevention programs with the support of the SAMHSA grant: 1) Campus Connect Gatekeeper Training workshop and 2) Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction educational seminars.

Our gatekeeper training workshop is a three-hour experientially based crisis intervention and suicide prevention training program. In Year 1 of our grant, we have trained and assessed all of our Residence Life staff (250), and our Health Services staff (50). Outcome studies to date are evidencing highly significant results. Satisfaction surveys are quite positive. As a result of our preliminary success, several other colleges and universities have requested training in the implementation of our model.

Our Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Seminar series has also met with success. Thus far, we have offered three eight-week seminars to over 80 students. Preliminary outcome results evidence significant results and students completing the course are overwhelmingly positive with regard to its affect on their ability to tolerate emotional distress.

In addition to our specific programs, we have also begun a campus wide social marketing campaign with posters and public service radio announcements aimed at de-stigmatizing the need for mental health services and increasing awareness and visibility of our Counseling Center.

New York State Page

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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University at Albany (2005–2008 & 2008–2011)

Program Description:

The University at Albany, State University of New York (UAlbany) seeks to meet the unique and complex needs of its undergraduate and graduate students who are at high risk for suicide through the enhancement of its existing Comprehensive Campus Suicide Prevention Model entitled the STEPS program. Specifically, we are focusing efforts on two key areas:

1. Developing comprehensive, targeted, culturally sensitive, and audience/department-specific gatekeeper training programs for academic faculty, paraprofessional student staff members, and student leaders. These programs will assist them in responding effectively to students with mental health and behavioral health problems that can lead to school failure.
2. Preparing informational materials, including a media campaign featuring our students, addressing these risk factors and encouraging help seeking. These educational materials will be specifically designed to address the needs of our students, staff, faculty, and parents/families and will outline warning signs of suicide, describe risk and protective factors, and identify appropriate actions to take when a student is in distress.

The objectives of the UAlbany STEPS program training and educational enhancements are consistent with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (2004) recommendations and will (1) reduce rates of student suicide, suicide attempts, and related mental/behavioral health problems that can lead to school failure, and (2) increase the utilization of campus mental health and related primary care services by the students in most need of them, as well as increase the number of mental health consultations and referrals of students by our campus responders. This project clarifies how well both universal and targeted individual-focused interventions derived from needs assessments and survey research with our target population work with our students who are identified as being at high risk for suicide. In clarifying this information, the project contributes to the development and enhancement of targeted educational, service, and prevention best practice strategies and capacity.

Contact Information:
M. Dolores Cimini, Ph.D.
Co-Project Director
Assistant Director for Prevention and Program Evaluation, University Counseling Center
University at Albany, SUNY
400 Patroon Creek Boulevard, Suite 104
Albany, NY 12206
Tel: 518-442-5800
Email: dcimini@uamail.albany.edu

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Pace University (2005–2008 & 2008–2011)

Program Description:
Pace University Counseling Center NY serves its diverse campus population by providing a wide range of counseling services to meet the mental health needs of its students. The Counseling Center has developed expertise in addressing the academic, professional, and psychological concerns of a student population that is rich in cultural, ethnic, and identity diversity and plans to provide mental health education and outreach services to the larger community of New York City and our Westchester campus. Consequently, Pace University has implemented Project Outreach Prevention Education Network (OPEN), the goals of which are to:

1. Develop a Multicultural Competence and Response Kit (MCRK) that will facilitate both didactic and self-study for the purpose of developing skill in crisis and suicide intervention with students from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
2. Develop a network of active connections to the mental health units of New York-area hospitals. This network will be used to create additional student-competent mental health resources for the Pace community. It will also be used to disseminate in-service didactic trainings to sensitize hospital-based personnel to the unique psychological aspects of the college experience in the prevention of possible mental illness or the likelihood of suicide with students.
3. Develop a Multicultural Competence and Prevention Kit (MCPK) that will provide the focal point of didactic trainings with other New York-area college and university mental-health units in fostering awareness, sensitivity, and education regarding the impact of such variables as stigma, discrimination, and hate crimes as these contribute to depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide within an education community.
4. Advertise and integrate the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline information into first-year orientation and outreach with Pace University students, faculty, and staff.
5. Develop both a brochure and a Counseling Center website-based program designed to address parents in promoting effective recognition of all of the following:

Help-seeking behavior
The signs and symptoms of psychological distress and the possible contemplation of suicide
The impact of stigma on preventing effective acknowledgement and utilization of mental health services
Other mental health aspects of the college experience

To date the MCRK and MCPK have been completed, trainings are underway, the parent website is live, and the brochure has been completed. Research is underway to assess incoming student mental health needs through surveying all first-year students.

Contact Information:
Richard Shadick, PhD
Pace University Counseling Center
156 William St., 12th floor
New York, NY 10038
Tel: 212-346-1527
Email: rshadick@pace.edu

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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2005–2008)

Program Description:
In response to the growing issues related to depression and substance abuse, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will enhance existing programs and add several novel approaches, which will benefit the target population. Rensselaer has designed a program to develop training programs for students and campus personnel, create an on-campus network, develop and implement educational seminars, promote linkage to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, prepare informational material and prepare educational material for families. It is expected that the evaluation will show that Rensselaer students will experience fewer mental and behavioral health problems each year that the comprehensive program exists.

Two key items are an institutional assessment and the need to develop a Crisis Response Plan. The Jed Foundation was contacted and they, along with consultant Dr. Mort Silverman, will perform the assessment. It is hoped that the assessment report, along with the evaluation efforts of this project, will allow Rensselaer to create an innovative new strategy for suicide prevention. Additionally Rensselaer will create, disseminate, and then practice a Crisis Response Plan.

Additionally, we plan to enhance existing services and improve access to care by contracting with a psychiatrist one day a week. Finally, this project will allow Rensselaer to fully take advantage of the data that is gathered, by expanding the analysis to focus specifically on depression and academic success.

New York State Page

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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SUNY - Buffalo (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The University at Buffalo seeks to address suicidal and other harmful behaviors through a comprehensive prevention approach. Project UB WELL ((University at Buffalo Wellness Enhanced Living and Learning) involves a wide range of campus and community resources and constituencies, such as faculty, staff, students, parents, and local mental health services to foster an environment where self-care, connectedness, and knowledge of resources are valued and readily accessed or implemented. Through funding from this grant a variety of stakeholders will be trained in QPR in order to identify persons at risk and in need of treatment. Training of nonclinician "gatekeepers" will convey the message that the entire community is charged with helping other individuals within it. The Inside-Out educational programs aim to normalize experiences of emotional distress, promote and support protective factors, and make students active participants in creating a public awareness campaign by encouraging them to use art, theatre, dance, writing, visual media, and class discussion to engage in dialogue and expression related to emotional wellness. The expertise of local psychiatric emergency personnel in treating acutely suicidal individuals will be shared with campus psychologists, social workers, health educators, and healthcare providers via developing curricula and in vivo training. The collaboration also involves using hospital data to identify the student groups who are at risk for suicidal behavior and other mental illnesses to inform public awareness campaigns and clinical interventions on campus and to develop protocols for a more coordinated response between campus and the local community. All of the new initiatives will be optimized by utilizing technology and media that is in keeping with how students typically access information.

New York State Page

Contact Information:
Sharon L. Mitchell
University at Buffalo
120 Richmond Quad
Buffalo, NY 14261
Email: smitch@buffalo.edu

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City College of New York (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The CCNY Suicide Prevention Project increases campus awareness of mental health problems, provides well-publicized mechanisms of referral, and integrated emergency and non-emergency approaches to suicide prevention as the college transitions to being partly-residential.

Psychological evaluations, risk assessment, and crisis intervention, will be offered at the residence hall on a walk-in basis and students identified as at risk will be actively responded to by clinicians and residence life staff. As a public, non-residential, commuter college of 12,000 students with a series of rigorous academic programs that attract high-achieving students of meager financial resources and ethnically and socio-economically diverse backgrounds, CCNY students face more pervasive stressors than most undergraduate institutions. Demographically, they are also less like1y to be diagnosed and treated for mental hea1th problems. Statistic& at the two campus mental health clinics indicate increasing rates of severe mental illness, depression, suicidal ideation, and serious plan and intent to commit suicide. In the past five years one CCNY student committed suicide at her home. CCNY students demonstrate significant, increasing need for psychological support. The presence of full-time residential students who will rely on the college for support make it imperative that CCNY develop a comprehensive response to student mental health needs to prevent campus suicide. The CCNY suicide prevention project comprises five interventions: the Crisis Response System that provides a protocol for immediate response to students who pose significant risk to themselves or others; the First Response Team, which is an residence hail screening clinic that provides evaluations to students on a walk in basis where their psychosocial needs are assessed, a psychological evaluation is administered, and where clinicians collaborate with the student to find an appropriate plan for ongoing support from psychological and social support services on campus and in student communities; Outreach Alert Workshops train residents and staff to recognize symptoms of mental and behavioral problems and refer them to support systems; the Student Monitoring System, is composed of members of the campus community trained to recognize and respond to students at risk of mental health problems whose referrals elicit active response by clinical or Residence Life staff to engage the student for support. Campus-wide campaigns will publicize the First Response Team and de-stigmatize mental health services.

New York State Page

Contact Information:
Pereta Rodriguez, DSW, LMSW
Director, Counseling and Wellness Center
City College of New York
Marshak Science Building, Room J-15
160 Convent Avenue
New York, NY 10031
Tel: 212-650-5915
Email: prodriguez@ccny.cuny.edu

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University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (2005–2008)

Program Description:
The Garret Lee Smith Memorial Campus Suicide Prevention Grant will fund five programmatic activities with the over-arching goal of identifying students who are at risk for suicide, and helping them obtain appropriate mental and behavioral health services. The diverse grant activities involve the entire campus community and incorporate a wide range of services and providers. The Gatekeeper Liaison Training Program will develop a formal infrastructure of faculty and staff to liaison with Counseling and Wellness Services (CWS) professionals in a community effort to decrease suicidal behavior. A "train-the-trainer" model will be utilized to extend the responsibility for students' psychological and physical well being on campus to non-mental health professionals who work with students in their natural environments. The S.U.P.E.R Peer Education Program will develop a cadre of students to provide educational presentations to other students oriented towards "helping a friend". The Web-based Information Program will expand existing web-based information on suicide prevention as part of a multimodal, multicultural approach to reach students, parents, faculty and staff with information on college student mental health issues, and resources for help. The E-Mail Mental and Behavioral Health Screening Program will target those students who may be reluctant to seek traditional psychological services, but may respond to offers of anonymous assessment and service on the internet. All undergraduate students will be contacted yearly, and offered the opportunity to complete an on-line screening instrument and have either in person, or on-line follow up with a therapist. The Parent Alliance Program will enhance CWS' relationship with parents of UNC-CH students - through presentations, newsletters, and web based information targeted to parent groups - to better utilize their extensive and unique knowledge of their children's mental and behavioral health vulnerabilities, and involve them as a first line of contact for their distressed children.

North Carolina

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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University of North Carolina - Greensboro (2008–2011)

Program Description:
The Friends Helping Friends program is designed to create a network of informed peers who are equipped to act as referral sources for students in need. Many factors - stress, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, transition issues, loneliness - that put students at risk for suicide or attempted suicide (Kadison & DiGeronimo, 2004) can be treated before the situation reaches the stage of suicide if students can be connected with available mental health services (Kadison, 2004). Unfortunately, 80-90% of college students who die by suicide do not seek help from their college counseling centers (Kisch, Leino, & Silverman, 2005) and only a minority of those at potential risk seek counseling services (Furr, Westefeld, McConnell, & Jenkins, 2001; Kisch et al., 2005). A recent study (Eisenberg, Golberstein, & Gollust, 2007), for example, found that among college students who screened positive for depression or anxiety between 37% and 84% (depending on the disorder) did not seek services. Given the amount of time that students spend with friends, classmates, and fellow student organization members, peers represent an important and overlooked ally in campus prevention programs related to suicide and other mental and behavioral health issues. These students can act as reliable sources of mental and behavioral health information and help to humanize the help seeking process.

Contact Information:
Jeanne Irwin-Olson, M.Ed, RHEd
Project Director
Assistant Director for Wellness Programs
University of North Carolina-Greensboro
Student Health Services
007 Gove Student Health Center, Gray Drive
Greensboro, NC 27402-6170
Tel: 336-334-3079
Email: Jeanne_Irwin-Olson@uncg.edu

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University of North Dakota (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The American Indian Suicide Prevention Program at the University of North Dakota (UND) is a two-phase program that will develop a circle of care model for suicide prevention. The first phase will be development and integration at UND and the second phase will be the application of the model to tribal colleges in North Dakota. The circle of care model provides linkages to and from the reservations and UND, to exchange information with the suicide prevention coordinators and IHS mental health contacts. The tribal contacts will inform the campus crisis team of traumatic events that occur on the reservations to activate campus support services. The crisis team reciprocates by relaying traumatic campus incidents to the reservations so families can provide support. A steering committee, consisting of the American Indian Crisis Team, project staff, UND officials, tribal liaisons, tribal college representatives and AI students from each ND reservation (and two at-large) will assist in the-development and future modifications, The model at UND will include education and training for: the crisis team members, interested community members, and American Indian students. The curriculum includes: identifying signs of suicidal behavior, developing skills to de-escalate situations, learning stress-reduction techniques and problem solving skills, and acquiring knowledge of resources and support services, such as counseling. The trainings, for AI students, will be incorporated into the currently-offered workshops and seminars about school success and student retention. The training material is from the LaFromboise Adolescent Life Skills Curriculum and will be adapted to be culturally appropriate for tribes in North Dakota. In addition, Mental Health First Aid training will be implemented in the campus community in year one of the project (and at tribal colleges in year two and year three). The Mental Health First Aid training was created specifically for the non-mental health professional to: recognize signs of mental health problems, de-escalate situations, assess risk for suicide, and help individuals' access resources while receiving emotional support. Personnel from the Center for Rural Health at UND will facilitate the training program. The University will offer unique cultural components to students who are in need of support by: creating a sweatlodge, offering ceremonial activities on campus, and providing access to a spiritual advisor as part of the circle of services. The project will be evaluated from three primary sources of data: interviews with the program staff, self-report data from students who have contact with the program, and demographic records. The intention of this evaluative process is to provide data that will facilitate improvement and revisions to the program by assessing how the program's processes work, and the impact it is having upon the students. The data collection and analysis of findings will be on-going throughout the years, and integrated within the standard functioning of the program. This formative evaluation will detail the refine the model, and make it applicable to other campuses.

Contact Information:
Jacqueline S. Gray
University of North Dakota
Box 9037
Grand Forks, ND 58202-9037
Email: jgray@medicine.nodak.edu

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Ohio State University (2006–2009 & 2009–2012)

Program Description:
The Ohio State University Campus Suicide Prevention Program (OSU-CSPP) seeks to develop a comprehensive, effective, culturally responsive, technologically advanced, and sustainable system of suicide prevention at the Columbus campus and five regional campuses. A broad and diverse network of 73 campus and community partners is already committed to the project and will create a systematic and coordinated effort, where suicide prevention is seen as a shared campus responsibility. As the nation’s largest university, the Ohio State University (OSU) recognizes its responsibility to assume a leadership role in the development and dissemination of a sustainable suicide prevention program that is effective for large campuses. The proposed project will build on the strong foundation already in place to enhance and strengthen existing services for students while simultaneously creating new approaches to suicide prevention. There is high-level and broad-based commitment to this project, with the President of the university already committing his support and leadership, and campus partners from 64 different units and programs from the academic and service sides of the university, as well as student partners. Additionally, nine community partners have pledged their support for the project, for a total of 73 partners in this project. The OSU-CSPP is run through a separate, stand-alone office within the university, so all partners share equally in the development of a campus culture of caring. The campus and community partners have identified individuals to spearhead their unit’s contributions to suicide prevention. In the project, 22 faculty and staff from 11 different campus offices have pledged at least 5 percent of their time as an in-kind match. Major components of the program include (1) continuing to engage a broad and diverse group of campus and community partners; (2) collecting and integrating new and existing data regarding suicide risk on campus; (3) developing coordinated policies and procedures for crisis management across university partners; (4) developing an extensive, culturally sensitive, and technologically advanced training system in suicide prevention, with particular attention to targeted groups; (5) using technology and e-messaging, in addition to traditional formats, to expand suicide prevention education and anti-stigma campaigns to all students; (6) developing a comprehensive suicide plan for OSU; (7) evaluating all components of the project, through process, performance, and outcome measurements; and (8) disseminating information widely to other campuses, through professional organizations, and through Suicide Prevention Resource Center Best Practices Registry and SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices. With a strong foundation in place, the next phases are to (a) formalize and operationalize the partner networks, (b) expand the project to include target populations and products, (c) refine the efforts to components with demonstrated effectiveness, and (d) institutionalize the efforts so they become part of the ongoing operation of the university and can be sustained.

Contact Information:
Wendy Winger
Program Manager
The Ohio State University
PAES Building, Room A445D
305 West 17th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
Tel: 614-688-5829
Email: winger.16@osu.edu

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Northeast Ohio Medical University (2011–2014)

Program Description:
This proposal aims to continue the development, implementation and evaluation of the Ohio Program for Campus Safety and Mental Health. This builds on work started in 2008 to create and support a statewide network to address campus safety and mental health, with a strong focus on suicide prevention, at all institutions of higher education in the state. Supported by Ohio’s SAMHSA funded Transformation State Incentive Grant (TSIG), this program is based at the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM). The program’s specific approach has been to enlist partnerships between colleges and universities and their local mental health systems to maximize resources and to create partnerships in each local community. A statewide effort such as this, promoting partnerships between institutions of higher education and local public mental health systems are needed at this time of dwindling resources to assure that the needs of students at risk of suicide are addressed. Partial support to continue this program has already been provided by two local foundations. The Ohio Program for Campus Safety and Mental Health will provide suicide prevention education and training for students, faculty and staff at Ohio’s college, university, community college and technical school campuses. Our target population is students and veterans returning to college. Our ultimate vision for this project is that all institutions of higher education in Ohio will have a comprehensive program that addresses the mental health needs of its students. This project supports that vision by supporting a structure for a coordinated statewide effort to reduce suicide risks on campus and promote mental health. The Program serves as a resource center and provides technical assistance to campuses and communities working on suicide prevention and campus mental health initiatives throughout the state. Activities for this project are to develop suicide prevention, mental health awareness and anti-stigma programs on Ohio’s campuses; to foster collaboration between campuses and local mental health systems as well as statewide collaboration of these partners; and to host state and regional educational trainings and seminars. The primary purpose of this project is to expand upon existing efforts to establish a statewide coordinating center for campus safety and mental health. The goal of this project is to advance campus safety on college/university campuses by promoting mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Objectives are to: 1) promote the development of at least 10 educational and training programs on mental illness, suicide prevention, and stigma reduction that reach at least 1,000 campus stakeholders annually, or 3,000 over the project period; 2) provide technical assistance and resources to at least 10 communities to develop and sustain such programming; 3) address and overcome systemic barriers to mental health services on campuses through advocacy efforts at a state policy level; and 4) educate campus stakeholders and the general public through conferences in Years 1 and 3, each attended by at least 200 individuals and annual workshops attended by at least 50 campus and community stakeholders.

Contact Information:
Mark Munetz, M.D.
Margaret Clark Morgan Endowed Chair of Psychiatry
Northeast Ohio Medical University
4209 State Route 44, P.O. Box 95
Rootstown, OH 44272
Tel: 330-325-6691
Email: mmunetz@neomed.edu

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Oklahoma State University - Okmulgee (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The Suicide Prevention Program at Oklahoma State University-Okmulgee, Oklahoma, is a proactive program designed to identify students who are at-risk and in need of behavioral health education support. To promote over-all effectiveness in improving quality of life, education will be implemented through the creation of a comprehensive public health approach that engages key players in the college and community agencies. A safety-net will be established by infrastructure building through implementation of the six allowable activities.

The operational goals of the Student Assistance Program are to:

• Provide educational and training services to the college community in areas of suicide awareness, substance abuse issues, interpersonal skills, group counseling, and stress management.
• Train and counsel student clients in effective techniques for managing stress, substance abuse issues, dysfunctional families, and peer relationships.
• Assist students in developing a positive self-concept.
• Train and counsel student clients in interpersonal skills.
• Provide an intervention service for those students who are identified as having substance abuse problems.
• Provide an intervention service for those students who are identified as having difficulties dealing with stress, dysfunctional families, peers, and personal and school related adjustments.
• Facilitate and promote long term counseling for students who are identified as being in need of such service.

The management goals of the Student Assistance Program are to:

• Develop and maintain links with appropriate outside agencies, which can assist in the delivery of program services.
• Organize and implement an effective internal referral system.
• Organize and implement an effective external referral system.
• Organize and manage a communication and record keeping system, which promotes and enhances a team approach to the operation of the program.

The program services are provided in four venues: educational services, intervention services, counseling services, and group services.

Contact Information:
Barbara Osborne
Project Director, Suicide Prevention Grant
Oklahoma State University-Okmulgee
Counseling and Access Services
1801 East 4th Street
Okmulgee, OK 74447
Tel: 918-293-4988
Email: barbara.osborne@okstate.edu

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University of Oregon (2005–2008)

Program Description:
The Oregon University Suicide Prevention Project (OUSPP) represents a committed effort by a consortium of all eight public universities in Oregon to enhance services for students with mental and behavioral health problems, thereby reducing the incidence of suicide among the 81,242 students in the consortium's student population. The universities comprising this consortium have great need for suicide prevention programming. The OUSPP will increase awareness of suicide as a public health problem that is often preventable; increase the ability of faculty and staff to recognize and respond effectively to students at-risk of suicide; increase students' awareness of crisis line services and treatment resources; and provide training on effective clinical and professional practices in the area of suicide prevention. Other key activities in the Project include dissemination of educational materials to students, students' family members, faculty, and staff; provision of suicide risk assessment and intervention skills training for identified campus gatekeepers; implementation of triage forms in campus health centers that allow students at-risk to be identified and referred for treatment; and expansion of suicide prevention task forces on consortium campuses. The OUSPP will succeed in reaching its goals because of its significant human and financial resources. Counseling center directors have committed service hours from a total of 22 staff to the Project. These are staff that are already intimately familiar with student needs and campus resources.

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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Blue Mountain Community College (2005–2008)

Program Description:
Blue Mountain Community College (BMCC), the only comprehensive community college in rural northeastern Oregon, plans to develop and establish a network-based infrastructure that supports suicide prevention awareness education and training for faculty, staff, students, and student families throughout the college's 18,000-square-mile service area. BMCC currently provides no health or mental health services for students except a part- time student counselor intern at the Pendleton campus. The urgency of addressing this critical institutional gap was made evident by BMCC's lack of preparedness when two students committed suicide during the 2003-04 academic year. The goal of this project is to infuse suicide prevention awareness and training throughout the college’' eight locations. The grant will support six primary activities: 1. Develop training programs for students and college personnel using external local resources available through partnerships such as the Umatilla-Morrow Counties' Emergency Response Crisis Management Coalition. 2. Solidify networks with local health care providers and integrate the network processes and services into an updated crisis response plan for the college. 3. Develop and implement educational seminars for students and staff. 4. Promote linkages to local hotlines and/or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. 5. Prepare and disseminate informational materials that address warning signs and provide guidelines for referral and other responses. 6. Prepare educational materials for families of BMCC students.

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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Bloomsburg University (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The Comprehensive Campus Suicide Prevention (CCSP) project for Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania is designed to increase student, faculty, and staff awareness of suicide risk factors and signs of potential suicidal behavior in university students. The program will be directed at providing a wide range of educational programs for students, staff, faculty, and families of students as well as increased promotion of the available resources to help those students in need of help. Peer support programs will be developed with mechanisms such as telephone support and on-line support made available to help students' suffering from emotional problems or from situational/maturational crises. The program will be used to enhance and augment the current services available on the university campus, such as the campus Counseling Center, Student Health Services, and NAMI-on-Campus programs. It has long been recognized that many students do not actively seek help for mental health issues due to stigma, lack of knowledge, etc.

Our hope is that by initially preparing a core group of faculty, staff, and students trained as trainers in suicide prevention, we will then be able to conduct multiple educational offerings on campus through a wide variety of venues such as general education values classes, university seminars, freshmen orientation programs, faculty development programs, trainings for residence hall advisors and leaders of student organizations, etc. The primary goal of the project will be to educate everyone on campus (students, faculty, and staff) regarding suicide risk factors, ways to help the suicidal student access help, and provide support to both the individual who is engaging in self-destructive behaviors as well as for those who are trying to help. In addition, a more detailed suicide response plan will be developed for the university outlining the steps that need to be taken when a student is displaying behaviors indicative of suicide as well as what to do in the case of a suicide attempt or completed suicide. The plan will also address plans for post-suicide intervention services that will be used to help students, faculty, staff, etc. in the event of a completed suicide.

The CCSP will strive to incorporate the involvement of services and support from community agencies in and around Bloomsburg University, including The Bloomsburg Hospital which has a 20-bed inpatient mental health unit, CMSU Columbia/Montour/ Snyder/Union County Mental Health-Mental Retardation) program, NAMI- on-Campus, the local Mental Health Association, local providers of psychological and counseling services, as well as, the university's psychology and social work clubs and student nurses association. Outreach to areas in and surrounding the campus where students congregate such as local bars/restaurants, etc. will be part of the plan, as well.

Contact Information:
Linda Cook
Bloomsburg University
400 East Second Street
Bloomsburg, PA 17815
Email: lcook@bloomu.edu

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Pennsylvania State University - Altoona (2008–2011)

Program Description:
In response to the growing issues related to depression and substance abuse, the goal of Penn State Altoona’s suicide prevention project is to tighten the safety net already in place by enhancing existing programs and adding several innovative programs focusing on early identification of high-risk students and appropriate intervention. These approaches will benefit not only the target population of high-risk students but the campus community at large. The campus culture represents individuals of diverse cultures, ethnicities, genders, ages, sexual orientations, abilities, and sets of personal values. This project will reflect issues of diversity and will seek to increase utilization of counseling services through coordinated activities and initiatives offered across campus to allow us to better reach all of our students. National and local data clearly identify depression as impacting quality of life as well as academic success. In response to this, Penn State Altoona has designed a program that will  develop training programs for students and campus personnel, create a campus community network, develop and implement educational seminars, promote linkage to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and prepare informational material for families. Specific suicide prevention objectives include the development of an internal mechanism for the identification and reporting of students in distress, training of faculty and staff in the role of gatekeeper, and improvement of awareness and effective intervention and referral throughout the campus community. Two key innovative approaches that were developed include the Early Alert System and a web-based training program for faculty/staff and students. The Early Alert program helps to identify students displaying academic or emotional distress and provides support and referral information to those students. The web-based training program for faculty/staff and students focuses on identifying symptoms of distress, normalizing approach, and building confidence and skill related to referral. This product by Kognito uses gaming technology to effectively train participants through virtual role-play. We have also developed two 60- to 90-second trailers which are linked to a stress reduction and mental health awareness website which assists in awareness education and emotional management.  Currently we are working with John Jay University in New York City and the Jed Foundation to develop a research study looking at parent attitudes, beliefs, and actions related to mental health issues in the student college population. This study will be a followup to the Jed Foundation parent survey in 2007. We expect to launch the survey in February 2011. Additional goals of this project are to increase the awareness of issues of behavioral health by developing educational companion materials. Finally, this project will allow Penn State Altoona to take full advantage of the data that is gathered by expanding the analysis to focus specifically on increased utilization of services and increased help seeking.

Contact Information:
Joy Himmel, Psy.D
Penn State University-Altoona
3000 Ivyside Drive
Altoona, PA 16601
Tel: 814-949-5540
Email: jyh1@psu.edu

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Thomas Jefferson University (2011–2014)

Program Description:
JeffHELP is a multi-disciplinary infrastructure consisting of stakeholders’ groups from all facets of campus life designed to develop, implement, and evaluate a campus-based suicide prevention program at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), a health sciences university in Philadelphia. We plan to increase awareness, educate about suicide risk, link individuals to services who need them, and promote healthy behaviors across our campus community of 14,204 students, faculty, and staff. Unlike most colleges and universities in the United States, TJU specifically focuses on students preparing to enter health professional fields. This presents numerous challenges and demands unique to our population of students and those faculty and staff with whom they interact. Medical students face an increased risk of suicide compared to age-matched controls (Schernhammer, 2005) and are reluctant to use mental health services (Tjia et al., 2005; Clark &
Zeldow, 1988). A recent survey completed at TJU found that students in other health professional fields are at similar or increased risk compared to the medical students (Wintersteen et al., 2011). The overarching goals of JeffHELP are to 1) create an infrastructure for the delivery and sustainability of effective mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment services, and 2) create a culture of acceptance of support for psychosocial issues. To achieve these goals, we will have five objectives, modeled after the Jed Foundation’s Model for Comprehensive Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention for Colleges and Universities. Objective 1.
(Jeff) Develop key stakeholders’ groups on campus focused on mental health and reducing suicide risk. We will form a Committee on Campus Mental Health, comprised of administrators in a number of key campus areas, to provide oversight to the project. A Campus Suicide
Prevention Task Force, comprised largely of students, will assist with implementation efforts. Objective 2. (H) Heightened Awareness – increase awareness across the Jefferson community about suicide risk, help-seeking, and lethal means restriction through print and multimedia formats and promoting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Objective 3. (E) Educate members of the Jefferson community about risk factors and warning signs of suicide both in the classroom and faculty meetings. Objective 4. (L) Improve linkages to mental health and substance abuse services on- and off-campus through heightened screening efforts by the Student Personal Counseling Center and University Health Services, as well as improving our capacity to refer off-campus. Objective 5. (P) Promote better health practices among the Jefferson community, including the facilitation of social support networks and wellness activities. Throughout this process, we will partner with the Pennsylvania State grantee and the Jed Foundation, both of whom will provide consultation to our campus project.

Contact Information:
Matthew Wintersteen
Project Director
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
833 Chestnut Street, Suite 210
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tel: 215-503-2824
Email: matthew.wintersteen@jefferson.edu

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University of South Carolina (2006–2009 & 2006–2009)

Program Description:
Our project proposes to build campus partnerships with specific faculty, staff and student organizations to increase knowledge of suicidal issues, assessing student emotional symptoms, and referral skills. The specific target population is college freshmen because they are making the biggest transition to university life. They are a captive audience, 95% live in campus housing, and attention to their mental health is an investment that will accrue through their matriculation at the university.

Many students experience the transition of the security of the familiar life at home to unfamiliar university life as stressful and frustrating. Transitional issues include being away from the comforts and structure of home, negotiating new relationships, competing for grades, deciding on a major and career choice, as well as a myriad of other basic life decisions (when to sleep, how much to eat, drink, spend, etc.). This stress from these transitions and decisions can stimulate maturity, however it can become harmful when it is excessive and the student is not able to balance the new life style with existing personal and social resources.

The imbalance and stress can lead to feelings of overwhelming depression. Since college life is supposed to be the best years of one's life, for many students' depressive, anxiety, and other psychological symptoms often go unrecognized. Thus too many students never get referred for appropriate treatment. If untreated the depression may worsen leaving the student feeling more isolated and at risk for suicide.

South Carolina

Contact Information:
Barbara V. Sheridan, Ed.S.
Acting Project Director- Suicide Prevention Grant
University of South Carolina
Counseling and Human Development Center
Byrnes Building, 7th floor,
Columbia, SC 29208
Tel: 803-777-5223
Email: Sheridan@mailbox.sc.edu

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South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (2005–2008)

Program Description:
The goals of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (School of Mines) suicide prevention plan are to decrease the stigma and barriers to help-seeking behaviors for mental/behavioral health issues and increase overall mental health among students, thereby aiding the successful completion of their studies. The plan features three major components:

Prevention Education, Gatekeeper Intervention Training, and Assessment and Treatment. These components are aimed at reducing risk factors and increasing protective factors as they relate to suicidality. Prevention Education includes seminars targeted to the student. Seminars will address the risk factors and protective factors in smaller groupings of students to maximize interaction and reinforce a social support structure. Prevention Education will also include the development and dissemination of informational materials that address the warning signs, risk factors, and protective factors of suicidal behavior as well as appropriate action steps for students to act upon for themselves or on behalf of fellow students. Informational material will also publicize a suicide hotline and be disseminated to students, students' families and staff. Gatekeeper Intervention Training will address mental/behavioral health problems, risk factors and protective factors and will instruct in the implementation of the crisis response protocol. The final component is the development of an Assessment and Treatment/referral system. Assessment of mental health and suicidal risk will be achieved through the suicide prevention office and will include pre- and post-treatment evaluations.

During the first year of the grant program, gatekeeper training materials were developed by the project coordinator based on the QPR model. Key staff received the training with pre and post tests to assess learning. Baseline data was collected for student behaviors with the CORE Survey. The first quarter of the second grant year was spent preparing the prevention workshops and delivering them to residence hall students. Also the gatekeeper training was expanded to faculty. Student referrals to counseling Services were screened for depression with Beck's Depression Inventory and tracked for progress.

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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Vanderbilt University (2005–2008)

Program Description:
Vanderbilt University's Mental Health Awareness and Prevention of Suicide (MAPS) Project proposes to improve identification of and response to suicidality and its antecedents within the Vanderbilt student population. The major goals of MAPS have been to refine the current on-campus network of student services and to develop educational materials and programs for students, their families and campus personnel. By uniting and marshaling the existing expertise and know-how on campus, the project has developed a "Gatekeeper" training program for students and campus personnel that will allow for a more effective response to students with mental or behavioral health problems. The MAPS program will enhance the university community's knowledge on such issues as identifying risk factors for suicide, decreasing high-risk activities, promoting help seeking behaviors and providing easy access to such services. Additionally, MAPS provides web resources and linkage to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline as part of the crisis response plan on campus. Community resources in the greater Nashville area that address suicide and mental health directly, the Jason Foundation, Tennessee Voices for Children (TVC) and the Tennessee Network for Suicide Prevention (TNSP), are assisting with the development of trainings and the implementation of MAPS at large.

The evaluation employs an open systems evaluation design (Cohen & Kibel, 1993), which facilitates "understanding the environment in which programs are implemented and tracking progress toward the achievement of specific program outcomes" (Julian, Jones & Deyo, 1995,p.334).

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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East Tennessee State University  (2009–2012)

Program Description:
East Tennessee State University, a rural institution, will develop and implement a campus suicide prevention plan called PEAKS – Prevention through Education, Awareness and Knowledge of Suicide. Program goals are to: 1) raise campus awareness about mental health issues, including stigma; 2) educate students, staff, and faculty to be suicide prevention gatekeepers; and 3) provide infrastructure and facilitate access to mental health services for distressed students. Populations of focus include first-generation students; first-year students; GLBT, minority and international students; military veterans; and fraternal and sorority groups. The project will strengthen existing campus service provider relationships into a cohesive suicide prevention network and provide the necessary training and educational materials to support prevention efforts. The program will also provide suicide prevention training to our campus, including QPR and Campus Connect and will develop curriculum to provide clinically-based, mentored training to Family Medicine residents and Clinical Psychology Ph.D. students.  Information and educational presentations and workshops focusing on the distressed rural student will include distance learning and tele-health products and linkage to local and national crisis lines.

Contact Information:
Jameson K. Hirsch, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
East Tennessee State University
P.O. Box 70649
Johnson City, TN 37614
Tel: 423-439-4463
Email: hirsch@etsu.edu

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University of Tennessee - Knoxville (2009–2012)

Program Description:
The VolAware Suicide Prevention Initiative will target students with a mental health condition, students under 21, males, LGBT students, African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics. The activities will target the campus; however, media, the internet, and e-mail will allow social marketing messages and educational literature to reach parents/families, commuter students, and students studying abroad. Critical first responders and gatekeepers will be trained in QPR. The objective of the project will be achieved through six activities: (1) First Responder QPR training; (2) Gatekeeper QPR training, designed for those who can play a critical role in identifying and referring at-risk students, (3) in-service training to augment the knowledge and skills of mental health professionals on campus, (4) professional development training for University of Tennessee (UT) student affairs staff to build basic skills at identifying and referring at-risk students; (5) development and dissemination of informational literature for parents/families of UT students to educate them about mental health issues; and (6) a coordinated social marketing campaign targeted at undergraduate students’ preferred media (radio stations, campus newspaper, posters) with a goal of raising awareness, decreasing stigma, and promoting help seeking.

Contact Information:
Connie Briscoe, PhD
Assistant Director
Counseling Center
The University of Tennessee - Knoxville
900 Volunteer Blvd.
Knoxville, TN 37996-4250
Tel: 865-974-2196
Email: briscoe@utk.edu

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University of Memphis  (2009–2012)

Program Description:
The University of Memphis is an urban university in the mid-south with an enrollment of more than 21,000 students. Approximately 50 percent of the students are considered high-risk for behavior and mental health problems, including those associated with suicide and suicidal behavior. In response to an institutional assessment of campus resources and needs related to behavioral and mental health issues associated with suicide, the University of Memphis will implement Memphis STEPS2(Suicide Training, Education, and Prevention Services), a comprehensive and coordinated campus suicide prevention initiative. The program centers around: (1) educating students, faculty, staff and the broader university community (i.e., parents, families) about suicide, mental and behavioral health problems (e.g., depression and substance abuse) associated with suicide as well as prevention and intervention resources and services available within the university community to address these problems; (2) developing and implementing training in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of individuals suffering with behavioral/mental health problems (e.g., suicidal ideation, depression) for various segments of the university community, including students enrolled in helping professions, such as nursing, clinical and counseling psychology; (3) evaluating the efficacy of the various educational and training activities, programs and services that will be offered as part of this initiative, in promoting mental health and preventing suicide on campus; and (4) developing an organizational structure that includes coordinated programs and services to sustain the initiative.

Contact Information:
Theresa Okwumabua, PhD
Project Director
Department of Psychology
University of Memphis
Psychology Building, Rm. 369
Memphis, TN 38152
Tel: 901-678-3677
Email: Tokwumab@memphis.edu

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University of Texas-Brownville (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The UTB/TSC Campus Suicide Prevention Program (CSPP) seeks to raise awareness of suicide as a critical but preventable issue while offering compassion and support to affected individuals. Through innovative training and collaborative partnerships, the CSPP educates key individuals on suicide indicators, prevention strategies, and intervention measures, assuring that at-risk students are connected with appropriate resources and treatment. The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College (UTB/TSC) is located on the border between Texas and Mexico, in Cameron County, and serves a traditionally under-served student population, which is largely Hispanic in ethnicity (92.6% as of fall 2010). While Hispanics constitute a clear majority, UTB/TSC students are diversified among a broad range of special populations including veterans; athletes; students with disabilities; international students; and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and intersexed (GLBTQI) students. An overwhelming majority of students are also economically disadvantaged, relying on financial assistance and external employment to subsidize their college educations. The CSPP addresses the numerous risk factors facing its target population through five goals which focus on implementing periodic training programs to educate relevant UTB/TSC faculty, staff, and students; on the identification and prevention of suicidal behaviors and appropriate intervention measures, outreach to students and their families, awareness campaigns that seek to de-stigmatize mental illness, and the development of collaborative partnerships with community-based mental health agencies. Student Health Services (SHS) at UTB/TSC will be responsible for implementing the CSPP. The SHS clinic and administrative offices are centrally located on the main campus of UTB/TSC and are easily accessible to everyone, including students with disabilities. Through a contractual arrangement, SHS will provide specialized training, employing the QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) Model, to over 200 faculty, staff, and student leaders annually. The QPR, a standardized program used in schools throughout the nation as well as at the Department of Veterans Affairs, delivers a broad assessment and intervention strategy for addressing issues of suicidality on college campuses. In order to assess the efficacy of the CSPP, evaluation activities will include collection and analysis of data sets from the process, performance, and outcomes of the Program as well as collection and analysis of the cross-site data required by SAMSHA. Ultimately, the CSPP will result in the establishment of a comprehensive plan designed to prevent suicidal behaviors among students and to facilitate the utilization of mental health services for those at risk.

Contact Information:
Eugenia Curet
Project Director
Student Health Services
Brownsville, TX 78520
Tel: 956-882-7283
Email: Eugenia.Curet@utb.edu

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Texas College (2008–2011)

Program Description:
The Suicide Prevention and Crisis Response Management for Texas College project seeks to reduce the number of suicide attempts and deaths by suicide among first-generation college students and students of single parents at Texas College. This project has multiple components. First, we are creating a crisis response plan for responding to suicide attempts and deaths by suicide. Second, we are conducting the Suicide Prevention Exposure, Awareness, and Knowledge Survey. Third, we are developing and conducting educational seminars that include information on suicide prevention, identification of at-risk students, reduction of risk factors, depression, substance abuse, promotion of help-seeking behaviors, and stigma reduction related to care for mental and behavioral health. Fourth, we are creating a local college-based hotline and promoting linkages to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK). Finally, we are conducting a social marketing campaign that addresses warning signs of suicide, risk and protective factors, symptoms of depression and substance abuse, promotion of help-seeking behavior, and stigma reduction related to care for mental and behavioral health problems.

Contact Information:
Johnnye Jones, Ph.D.
Texas College
2404 North Grand Avenue
Tyler, TX 75702
Tel: 903-593-8311
Email: jjones@texascollege.edu

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University of Texas - Pan American (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The University of Texas-Pan American Fear Not Project is a collaborative comprehensive suicide prevention project involving Enrollment and Student Services and Academic Affairs.

This project seeks to dramatically increase awareness among students, families, faculty and staff of the risk of suicide among UTPA students. It will train significant numbers of students, faculty and staff to Question suicidal individuals, Persuade them to accept help and Refer them to appropriate resources (QPR Suicide Triage). It will also train professionals who evaluate and treat potentially suicidal persons in suicide risk detection, risk assessment and risk management (QPRT). The ultimate goal of the Fear Not Project is to create a network of gatekeepers who have the ability to detect risk and refer students wherever and whenever they find themselves in crisis.

The Fear Not Project will utilize a tiered approach to (1) raise awareness among entering freshmen and their families, (2) train gatekeepers to identify and refer students at-risk and (3) mandate therapy for students identified as severely at-risk or in imminent danger of harm to self or others. This tiered approach will allow a significant allocation of resources to raise awareness and a directed approach to provide intensive assistance to those most in need.

Contact Information:
Lise L. Blankenship
The Univ. of TX - Pan Amrcn
1201 W. University Dr.
Edinburg, TX 78541-2999
Email: Blankenship@utpa.edu

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University of North Texas (2006–2009)

Program Description:
College and university campuses are critical for developing young people in today's society. Students coming to college at this time bring greater levels of emotional problems than five years ago and their emotional problems have grown more severe. Students are experiencing increased pressure to achieve and often have additional burdens interpersonally and financially. Depression and anxiety among students is more apparent than in the past. Minority populations are not exempt. African American and Latino young people are also suffering with depression and anxiety and are considering suicide are at a greater rate than ever before. Students who do not have effective strategies for managing increasing pressures of life may decide suicide is their only option. Research shows these students often do not seek treatment. College and university professionals have a responsibility to help college students identify and accesses resources to overcome what may appear to them-as insurmountable obstacles to moving effectively into adulthood. Identifying and assisting students who are depressed and considering suicide is key for colleges and universities. Developing individuals into effective contributing members of society with a wide variety of talents and ideas is the goal of suicide intervention. The QPR Gatekeeper approach works to develop students and staff by enhancing participants' ability to be more effective and proactive with persons in crisis. Participants are able to identify key indicators of suicide intention and develop skills to help a person receive care they need in a crisis. Leaders will develop more in depth skills to lead others in learning the process. Staff and faculty who are prepared effectively for a crisis situation can guide a student to receive assistance in overcoming crisis. Students themselves can learn how to help a friend. Gatekeeper training provides participants in a two hour format with warning signs and ways to assist a person who may be contemplating suicide. The ASIST Program for suicide intervention and prevention developed by LivingWorks, will add to the participants' knowledge and skill by directly addressing attitudes held considering suicide. LivingWorks pioneered inclusion of an attitudes component for participants to evaluate their own beliefs and attitudes about suicide. The extended educational approach is targeted towards staff, faculty, students in counseling and psychology and students who may lead two hour workshops in the future. Campus wide programming in the area of suicide prevention and intervention is a key approach to increasing knowledge and skill. Preventing suicide is the goal. Learning how to identify someone who is considering suicide and listening to the person are skills that will be developed. Through a campus wide network a safety net for students in crisis, can be built. Colleges' and universities' attention to the mental health of students encourages successful matriculation for all students.

Texas State Page

Contact Information:
Carolyn Kern
University of North Texas
PO Box 310829
Denton, TX 76203
Email: kern@unt.edu

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University of Utah (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The University of Utah (UU) Counseling Center plans to address suicide prevention by accomplishing the following goals: 1) improving on-campus gatekeeper skill in risk assessment and protective factor referral making; 2) measuring efficiency and quality of protective factor referral making on-campus; 3) developing online materials for target populations that address warning signs of suicide, address specific cultural related issues, promote help-seeking behavior, and reduce stigma associated with care seeking; 4) developing online materials for families of UU students that increase awareness of risk and protective factors for suicide; and 5) increasing UU student awareness and use of protective factors available on campus.

Commuter students, students living on campus in Residential Living facilities, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT ) students are the target populations chosen, based on survey data culled from two separate survey instruments administered on campus during the past year. The data indicate that these populations have high levels of risk factors associated with suicide.

Methods of achieving our goals include: Activity 1) gatekeeper training; Activity 2) creation of uniform forms for tracking and making protective factor referrals; Activity 3) content development for online materials for target populations; Activity 4) content development for online materials for families of UU students; and Activity 5) a professional promotion campaign.

While there are well-established clinical and emergency protocols for UU students in crisis, the campus community currently has no uniform suicide prevention training or response protocol for service delivery offices on campus. This project will help fill this critical gap in services. The Counseling Center is well positioned to conduct this project, using previous outreach work and coalition formation as a foundation. In 2000, Counseling Center and Office of Health Promotion staff formed the Wellness Network (Network) by inviting over 20 campus offices, departments, and groups to meet on a regular basis. The purpose of the Network is to improve communication between departments that serve students and coordinate and share resources, so that services will be provided more effectively, and redundancies and gaps in services minimized.

The Network has enjoyed successful interaction over the past five years and supports this application and proposed activities. Network members include a comprehensive group of UU student service providers: Academic Advising, Associated Student of UU, Center for Ethnic Student Affairs, Counseling Center, Dean of Students, Disability Services, Health Promotion and Education, International Center, Learning Enhancement Program, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Center, and many others.

With historical success and effective inter-office collaboration as its foundation, this project and its proposed activities will reduce suicide and suicide risk factors by increasing the availability and accessibility of protective factors for UU students.

Contact Information:
Megan DuBois
University of Utah
Campus Wellness Connection
201 South 1460 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9061
Tel: 801-581-7778
Email: MDuBois@sa.utah.edu

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Utah Valley University (2006–2009)

Program Description:
Utah Valley University will undertake a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention on the campus with community gate keepers and stakeholders. The College has formulated its own conceptual model called 3Rs based on best practices to govern the project philosophy and implementation. Multiple strategies and activities will be implemented, targeted at both the general campus population and identifiable at-risk populations over a three year time period. Engagement of key players in the college community in planning, assessment, design, implementation, and evaluation will be incorporated. The Project Director and a campus-based mental health services team of professional advisors and task forces will lead and implement the project. The following allowable activities will be utilized: (1) Training Programs; (2) Networking (institutional and broader community); (3) Educational Seminars; (4) Local and College-based Hotlines; (5) Informational Materials; and (6) Educational Materials for Families and Students. The major goals of the project are centered and aligned on informing, engaging, training and educating the community in best practices aimed at improving early recognition, treatment, help-seeking, and consistent care for the at-risk student population. The UV-CSI project further incorporates a comprehensive ongoing process evaluation and annual self and external evaluations as integral components of the project.

Contact Information:
J.C. Graham, MSW
Project Director
Utah Valley University
800 West University Parkway MS-200
Orem, UT 84058
Tel: 801-863-6073
Email: grahamjc@uvu.edu

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Lawrence University (2009–2012)

Program Description:
The two mutually reinforcing goals of the Lawrence University Campus Suicide Prevention Project (LUCSPP) are to (1) strengthen systemic and sustainable structures to effectively address the mental health needs of students particularly those at high risk; and (2) change campus culture to reduce stigma, reduce suicide risk factors, and promote awareness and use of mental health services. Our objectives are to: (1) implement project activities in a transparent and inclusive manner; (2) develop new and enhance existing training programs for campus personnel and students to recognize, respond to, and refer distressed students, support students affected by suicidal behavior of others, and respond in culturally competent ways; (3) strengthen internal and external networking infrastructures; and (4) develop comprehensive, culturally appropriate educational outreach approaches tailored to the unique needs of our campus. We will target the entire student body through comprehensive, culturally competent approaches that address risk factors and promote life skills, resiliency, and social connectedness, particularly among students from diverse sub-populations at higher risk. We will work with key community mental health stakeholders to identify common concerns and share suicide prevention efforts, particularly with other local college campuses; existing and potential partners in crisis prevention, intervention, and postvention; and other organizations serving at-risk youth and young adults.

Contact Information:
Kathleen Fuchs, PhD
Director
Counseling Services
Lawrence University of Wisconsin
P.O. Box 599
Appleton, WI 54912-0599
Tel: 920-832-6576
Email: kathleen.f.fuchs@lawrence.edu

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College of Menominee Nation  (2009–2012)

Program Description:
College of Menominee Nation (CMN), a Tribal college located in Keshena, WI, with a second campus in Green Bay/Oneida, is developing a suicide prevention program to offer prevention services currently unavailable to our high-risk populations. CMN serves several high-risk populations including Native Americans and veterans. Currently the college does not have a counseling department. This SAMHSA grant provides CMN with a full-time professional to develop awareness and preventative services, which include a referral networking system with local mental health agencies. CMN will accomplish all required SAMHSA activities, targeting the approximately 1,000 students each year at its Keshena and Green Bay/Oneida campuses. In general, the project is assisting CMN to develop a campus suicide prevention/education program from the ground up. The objectives of our project include the following:

1. By September 2012, train at least 50 percent of CMN employees, targeting faculty, administrators, advisors, tutors, and student workers, to respond effectively to students with mental and behavioral health problems.
2. By September 2010, develop the infrastructure to connect CMN to local mental and behavioral health providers.
3. Annually, educate at least 150 students on suicide prevention, identification, and reduction factors.
4. By September 2012, increase the availability of suicide prevention information materials and resources on the CMN campuses.

CMN is located in a very poverty-stricken area serving predominantly Native American students. While the reservation is poor monetarily, it is very rich in Native culture and natural resources. We intend to modify general suicide prevention information available where appropriate to draw on the strengths of Native culture and identity. We will use this grant to develop an information, resource, and referral system at both of our campuses.

Contact Information:
Gary Besaw, MS
Vice President
Student Services
College of Menominee Nation
P.O. Box 1179
Keshena, WI 54135
Tel: 715-799-5600
Email: gbesaw@menominee.edu

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Marquette University (2006–2009)

Program Description:
Link for Life is a multidisciplinary collaborative effort of Marquette University faculty, staff, and administration. The program will focus on the issues of suicide and those mental health issues that impact suicide by providing suicide prevention training and education to staff and the general student body, as well as parents. Further, Link for Life will teach these individuals, as well as first responders, how to respond to people in a suicidal crisis.

As concerned university and community members, we recognize that suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students (retrieved May 10, 2006 from www.jedfoundation.org) and that many of these students do not get the necessary suicide prevention information. Although we value the goals and objectives of crisis intervention work, we realize that this alone will not educate the larger campus community or prevent further suicides. Therefore, the following goals and activities are proposed.

The chief purpose of Link for Life is to reduce suicidal behavior and ultimately save the lives of our students. The specific goals of this project are: 1) To raise awareness, across campus and among parents, about suicide among young people and to increase knowledge about mental illness, as well as the etiology, risk factors, and warning signs of suicide. 2) To use a nationally recognized suicide prevention model (Question, Persuade, Refer [QPR]) to train Gatekeeper Trainers who will provide QPR training to members of the campus and local communities, including first responders, students, and mental health providers. An emphasis will be placed on creating links within the campus community so that an individual faced with someone in a suicidal crisis knows the campus and community mental health resources well enough to make appropriate referrals to trained professionals. 3) To enhance partnerships between the university and its students, as well as community mental health providers. Link for Life is designed to decrease the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide by inviting the entire campus community and local community health and mental health provides to take an active role in suicide prevention. 4) To review existing intervention efforts employed on other campuses. Marquette University will use the information to develop appropriate policy and procedures, suited to this campus, that reflect best practices and standards of care in the area of suicide prevention. 5) To extensively evaluate the project under the guidance of a Project Evaluator to ensure the activities are as effective as possible and to reduce the potential loss of lives.

Wisconsin State Page

Contact Information:
Michael Zebrowski, Psy.D.
Counseling Center Director
Project Director
Marquette University
Holthusen Hall, Room 204
P.O. Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881
Tel: 414-288-7172
Email: michael.zebrowski@marquette.edu

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University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh (2005–2008 & 2008–2011)

Program Description:
In 2005, the UW Oshkosh Counseling Center received the Garrett Lee Smith grant from SAMHSA to develop a Comprehensive Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Program, which fundamentally transformed the University's approach to students experiencing mental and behavioral health problems which lead to depression, substance abuse, suicide attempts and academic failure. This collaborative effort focused on better meeting the needs of at risk populations and for whom the nature of this campus creates barriers to accessing care.

In the past three years, UW Oshkosh has witnessed an increase in binge drinking and hospitalizations for mental health issues and alcohol abuse. The thrust of the current grant is to provide UW Oshkosh with the opportunity to expand on the Comprehensive Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Program, to develop and implement the Center for Balance wellness program, to mobilize an Alcohol Task Force and to continue increasing the campus’ competency in working with distressed and marginalized students.

UW Oshkosh is at a critical point of beginning to internalize the mission of the grant into the university culture. There is still a need to develop a Clergy Network of local ministers and to increase collaboration with area hospitals to address continuity of care needs. These grant initiatives not only assist students to develop better coping skills, reduce substance abuse, and treat depression, but enhances student safety; and will make our students more academically successful and improve retention.

Contact Information:
Shelly Rutz, MSW, LCSW
Project Director
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
201 Dempsey Hall
Oshkosh, WI 54904
Tel: 920-424-7178
Email: rutzm@uwosh.edu

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University of Wyoming  (2006–2009 & 2009–2012)

Program Description:
The Enhanced University of Wyoming (UW) Lifesavers Initiative aims to prevent suicide and suicide attempts via a comprehensive, collaborative, and coordinated approach that consists of education, training, outreach, and support. Key components include: (1) a campus-community coalition and networking/infrastructure-building with Wyoming community colleges; (2) educational strategies targeting the entire UW population, particularly military reservists and veterans, and students and faculty in health sciences; and (3) gatekeeper trainings. The target populations for the Enhanced UW Lifesavers Initiative are gatekeepers. Specifically, efforts will be focused on training gatekeepers in the following areas: UW student population and particularly military reservists and veterans, students in pre-professional and professional health science majors (i.e. pre-med, nursing, pharmacy, medical), UW staff and health sciences faculty, and gatekeepers at Wyoming community colleges. Specific program strategies include: (1) development of a chapter of Active Minds, a student-led peer education and support program; (2) educational seminars and informational materials for students, staff, faculty, and families; (3) a social marketing campaign; (4) gatekeeper trainings; (5) a campus-community coalition; and (6) a conference for Wyoming community colleges.

Contact Information:
Lena Newlin, MPH, CHES
AWARE Coordinator
University of Wyoming
1000 East University Ave, Dept. 3708
Laramie, WY 82071-3708
Tel: 307-766-2187
Email: lnewlin@uwyo.edu

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George Washington University (2005–2008)

Program Description:
To meet the major challenge of reaching students at risk for suicide but unknown to campus mental health agencies, the George Washington (GW) Counseling Center proposes to empower students through a multidimensional awareness/educational campaign; to build a web of supportive and skilled faculty, staff and student leaders through comprehensive training/consultative programs; and to sustain a caring community through enhanced identification, referral, and emergency services. GW will engage existing resources across campus to create a multifaceted approach to reaching at-risk students. Multiple media will be used to permeate the campus community with constructive messages each semester. Repetition within poster, flyer, newspaper, radio and electronic billboard publicity will be designed to create a strong positive connection with University Counseling Center (UCC) services. Key faculty, academic advisors, university police, residential life staff, student service staff, and student leaders will be trained to recognize symptoms of students in distress, to respond skillfully and to refer appropriately those students to campus resources. The intention and hope of this proposal is to reach GW students by providing education about mental health issues, empowering a web of community members to identify and respond to students in need, encouraging and supporting these students in taking responsibility for their mental health care by accessing appropriate services, and strengthening campus services to address perceived needs. Evaluation of this suicide prevention project will focus on the impact of the proposed interventions, both in terms of number of individuals meaningfully served as well as new learning and behavior resulting from project interventions.

District of Columbia State Page

For additional information on past grantees, contact Leah Horn at 617-618-2283 or by email at lhorn@edc.org

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Howard University (2005–2008 & 2009–2012)

Program Description:

Howard University's (HU) Department of Psychiatry and the University Counseling Service have developed the Suicide Prevention Action Group (SPAG).  The overall goals of the project are to:  (1) maintain and support the increase in HU students' help seeking behavior; (2) decrease suicidal behavior among HU students at all levels of matriculation; and (3) decrease the stigmatization of mental health seeking behaviors against any HU student at risk of suicide. Project objectivesinclude: (l) to continue and maintain the training of campus wide personnel who interact with HU students who may be at risk for suicide; (2) to deliver effective training for all HU resident assistants (RAs) in campus dormitories and first responders in the HU Hospital, mainly nurses and emergency room staff; (3) to implement an on-line training curriculum for incoming freshmen that will be proceeded by semester long dormitory-based discussions led by the RAs; and (4) to improve SPAG's existing strategies of education and outreach to new and existing students, and their parents. Target audience for SPAG's campus-wide program will be all incoming first-year students, resident assistants, and HU Hospital nurses and emergency room staff. http://www.howard.edu/spag/

Contact Information:
Donna Barnes, PhD
Department of Psychiatry
Howard University
2041 Georgia Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20060
Tel: 202-806-7706
Email: dbarnes@nopcas.org

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Universidad del Turabo (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The Campus Suicide Prevention Program at Universidad del Turabo (UT) will include three (3) main activities: (1) the development of a systematic training program for student's organizational leaders, faculty, counselors, athletic coaches and security personnel; The development and implementation of an Institutional Crisis Response Plan, including networking infrastructure created to link the institution with health care providers from the external community; and, (3) Data collection of risk factors as identified by the administration of a validated screening test that will be used to develop statistics and informational material related to suicide and prevention strategies.

The purpose of the training program is to develop in institutional direct service personnel with the student population under 21 years of age the following:(1) increase the knowledge concerning mental health and behavioral conflicts; (2) strengthen the ability to recognize and identify high risk behaviors in freshmen students; and, (3) promote the ability to respond effectively and make the necessary referrals for direct services as appropriate. An additional training to administer a screening test will be given to a selected group of counselors, social workers and faculty of the Psychology Department and various units of the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at UT.

The Institutional Crisis Response Plan will improve the current UT services for students with suicide ideations and attempts creating a formal process to attend campus suicide attempts. By establishing the community links with mental health care agencies, UT will be able to provide broader alternatives for student referrals.

Suicide on the UT campus remains a poorly understood event since statistics are limited, risk factors are diverse and more effective intervention techniques and research is needed. This project will permit data collection on suicide risk factors and the identification of effective institutional resources in suicide prevention management. This will also augment the opportunities for data collection among an Hispanic population that can be fully integrated into statistics compiled by the Suicide Prevention Evaluation Contractor of SAMSHA.

Informational material on suicide prevention and risk factors based on the statistical data generated will be prepared and distributed among UT students. The material will include mental and behavioral problems that can lead to depression, substance abuse, and suicide ideation or attempts. Also, plans and alternatives for accessing emergency care within the institution and the broader community will be provided.

Puerto Rico State Page

Contact Information:
Maria Lopez
Universidad del Turabo, SUAGM
State Rd. 189, Km. 3.3
P.O. Box 3030
Gurabo, PR 00778-3030
Email: malopez@suagm.edu

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University of Puerto Rico - Cayey (2006–2009)

Program Description:
The University of Puerto Rico at Cayey proposes a program to develop a comprehensive support network and college action plan for attending potential and serious cases of suicide. The focus of this program entails training through workshops and information materials for the campus body, in its informational aspect and a smaller number in direct services. Also, a comprehensive network strategy will be implemented through a crisis hotline and a referral program.

The UPR-Cayey, one of the 11 units of the Puerto Rico state university system, accepts only well-qualified students in the natural and social sciences, the humanities, education, and business administration. Although academically well-qualified, a large percentage of these students are academically unsophisticated. Many of them are first-generation college students, some from rural and semi-rural backgrounds, most of them low-income, and 90% from a seriously deficient public school system. This creates a situation of great stress for those who don't immediately catch on to the college environment. Although extensive formal studies have not been undertaken, the sample of those attended by the part-time psychologist indicates that there is a high rate of depression and incipient mental and behavioral health problems in the group that leaves and even in the group that stays. Although suicide has not been a problem, per se, among the college's student body, there is reason to believe that these conditions could easily lead to suicides later in life if these youngsters do not learn to deal with frustration and depression more effectively at this stage in their lives. One reason to think this is the very high rate of suicide, problem behaviors, and outright violence. Puerto Rican society, generally lauded for its human warmth, is also ironically characterized by one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption, domestic violence, homicides, and suicide under the American flag, and in some cases (alcohol consumption) in the world.

The project will be implemented over three years, beginning with a basic and direct approach, with training and preparation of inventories of resources, to the creation of more student-focused informational materials and more elaborate presentations, culminating in efforts to document success for institutionalization and replication. The expected results of the program calendar will be the guide to both process and outcome objectives to be assessed. The evaluation will include quantitative measures on how many individuals in each category were reached by the program's efforts and qualitative measures on how they react.

Contact Information:
Maria D. Fernandez
University of Puerto Rico at Cayey
Ave. Antonio R Barcelo 205
Cayey, PR 00736-9997
Email: mfernandez@cayey.upr.edu

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University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus (UPR-MSC) (2011–2014)

Program Description:
Abrazo a la Vida (Embracing Life) is a suicide prevention collaborative program of the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus (UPR-MSC) Women‟s Health Center with the Department of Psychiatry of the Campus School of Medicine, the student services of its six Schools, the Deanship of Student Affairs and other programs on campus; as well as with the Puerto Rico Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Research, and the Program for Crisis Intervention of the Puerto Rico Administration of Mental Health and Addiction Services (Puerto Rico Department of Health).
The long-term goal is to develop a collaborative suicide prevention education infrastructure within the campus using a multi-faceted approach including suicide prevention seminars, development of a student peer counseling program, and the development of a cross-campus Advisory Board on suicide prevention. Educational seminars will be culturally appropriate and focused on multiple campus stakeholders including students; faculty; psychiatric, counseling, and clinical staff; and auxiliary personnel such as security and maintenance. The selected audience for this project is students enrolled in the six schools at the UPR-MSC, the health sciences academic campus of the University of Puerto Rico system. The 2010-2011 enrollment is 2,402 with the majority being female. The student population is aged from 18 to over 35 years of age, dominantly Hispanic, and has significant financial support such as subsidized student loans. Data from the 2010 National Alcohol Drug and Violence Survey (NADVS), administered on campus in alternate years, indicates 11.5% of responding females, and 7.2% of responding males had experienced suicidal behavior in the previous 12 months. Two of participating females indicated they had attempted suicide during this same time period. A majority of female respondents (55.8%) and 37.1% of males reported having experienced profound sadness and/or depression in the previous 12 months. Of those students reporting not drinking or using illegal drugs, 8% reported thinking about suicide while 9.1% of those reporting drinking or using illegal drugs think about suicide three or more times a week. Through the educational seminars alone, we estimate that 1,620 members of the campus community will be served over the life of this funding period. Of these 55% will be members of the general student population, 16% of faculty, and 13% of auxiliary personnel. In addition, the program will support the development of a student peer-to-peer counseling program which will train 180 students in this process over the funding period. Annually, we anticipate serving 300 students, 72 auxiliary personnel, and 60 faculty members via educational seminars. Each year, 60 students will choose to participate in the student peer-to-peer counseling program. Additionally, we will constitute a campus-wide Advisory Board for suicide prevention activities and make all training and materials available to both the campus community and the community-at-large via the UPR-MSC website.

Contact Information:
Dr. Delia Camacho
Project Co-Director
University of Puerto Rico - Medical Sciences
San Juan, PR Tel: 7877530090
Email: delia.camacho@upr.edu

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University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras (2011–2014)

Program Description:
The University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras Campus’s UPR-RP Suicide Prevention Program objectives are to: implement campus-wide protocols; train gatekeepers; systematically collect mental health data; develop a bilingual Website with informational materials; network with suicide reduction partners on and off campus; promote Suicide Prevention Lifelines; increase awareness of suicidal risk factors and behaviors; and reduce stigma. The UPR-RP, located in the metropolitan area of San Juan, is the largest institution of higher education in Puerto Rico with 18,966 undergraduate and graduate students. Fall 2009 data shows a typical 99.7% of students are Hispanic, and on average half of all students receive financial aid each academic year. Suicide is the third leading cause of violent death for youth between 15 and 24 years of age in Puerto Rico. Studies have shown that approximately 20% of incoming freshmen at the UPR-RP report symptoms of depression and as many as 11% have had suicidal thoughts, making the need for a suicide prevention program at UPR-RP critical. The goal of the Program is to develop an institutional, environmental, and individual comprehensive prevention strategy that will mitigate the risk of student suicide by addressing infrastructure, capacity building, awareness, and case management development. At the institutional level the Program targets changes in university policy through the establishment of a Crisis Response Protocol and a Suicide Prevention Plan. The environmental level will focus on capacity building and promoting awareness among 226 identified gatekeepers and personnel who provide mental health and counseling services to students. Direct service personnel training will cover effective assessment, referrals, and treatment delivery according to the suicide risks presented. Workshops for personnel will include the identification of early signs and symptoms associated with suicidal behavior, management of an emotional crisis, and appropriate referral practices. The Program will target all university students with the creation and dissemination of informational materials, an informative Web Page, and promotional campaigns. The individual level intervention will be directed toward the development of a standardized and empirically informed case management protocol, including assessment and basic guidelines for treatment through the counseling, psychological, and medical services available on campus. Expected measureable outcomes are the creation, implementation and dissemination of a suicide prevention university policy; increased networking among stakeholders on and off campus; increased identification and referrals of high-risk students; increased help-seeking behavior; and improved assessment and treatment procedures at counseling, psychological, and health service units. In terms of direct counseling services, the Program expects to serve an average of 1,200 students annually (3,600 over three years) and to promote awareness among 2,800 students at freshmen orientation, 789 students in dorms, 300 student athletes, and 50 peer counselors.

Contact Information:
Dr. Guillermo Bernal
Project Director
University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras campus
Po Box 23174
San Juan, PR 00931
Tel: 787-764-0000
Email: gbernal@ipsi.uprrp.edu

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University of Guam (2005–2008 & 2008–2011)

Program Description:
The U.S. Territory of Guam is the largest island in Micronesia, a geographic region in the Western Pacific with some of the highest suicide incidence rates in the world, averaging 26 deaths by suicide per 100,000 population. The suicide incidence rate in Guam itself is approximately 16 deaths per 100,000, which is significantly higher than the U.S. mainland rate of 11 per 100,000. Nearly 60 percent of suicides in Guam are completed by youths and young adults below the age of 30. In 2005, the University of Guam’s Isa Psychological Services Center applied for and received a three-year grant through the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act. This grant supported the creation of the I Pinangon Campus Suicide Prevention program, which has provided suicide prevention services to the university community, including students and their families, faculty, administrators, and staff. In 2008, Isa Psychological Services Center received another three-year grant through the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act to support the enhancement, expansion, and institutionalization of campus suicide prevention services through a variety of infrastructure development strategies. Since the inception of the grant in 2005, I Pinangon has reached over 7,000 participants from the university community through gatekeeper training, mental health screening, and other outreach events. The program addresses student suicide risk through six activities:

1. Further development and institutionalization of training programs for student leadership and university personnel to respond effectively to students with mental and behavioral health problems that can lead to suicide and suicide attempts
2. Institutionalization of a networking infrastructure linking the university with community-based mental health care providers so as to enhance the university’s ability to provide culturally competent mental and behavioral health services to students
3. Expansion and institutionalization of an educational seminar series providing information on suicide prevention, risk factors, help seeking, and stigma reduction
4. Further development and promotion of linkages to Guam’s local crisis hotline and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, including integration of these hotlines into the university’s crisis response plan
5. Further development of informational materials that address suicide warning signs, risk and protective factors, appropriate actions to help students in distress, symptoms of depression and substance abuse, help seeking, and stigma reduction in a manner congruent with the cultural and linguistic characteristics of the target population
6. Further development of informational materials designed to educate students’ families about suicide risk factors and suicide prevention 

Contact Information:
Iain K. B. Twaddle, PhD
Program Director
I’Pinangon, University of Guam Campus Suicide Prevention
University of Guam Station
Mangilao, GU 96923
Tel: 671-735-2882
Email: itwaddle@uguam.uog.edu