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Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Program Descriptions

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Tufts University (2008–2011)

Program Description:
Tufts Community Cares: A Suicide Prevention Program will work with Tufts University faculty, staff, targeted student groups including peer leaders, students from Tufts' six Culture Centers (Africana, Asian American, International, Latino, LGBT, and Women's) and the general student population, and families to support a comprehensive suicide prevention program. Its goals are to increase awareness of signs and symptoms of depression, student distress, suicide risk and available resources; 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 enhance linkages within the community between mental health/substance abuse services, and gatekeepers, students, families, and other sources of support.

The activities of the program include conducting bi-annual enhanced faculty, staff and student gatekeeper trainings, conducting seven focus groups with target student populations noted above to gather information for program development and implementation, creation of bi-annual family wellness newsletters and year-long universal programming to reduce stigma. Both formative and summative evaluations will be used to enable the capture of data regarding 1) satisfaction with gatekeeper training, culturally appropriate educational sessions, the family newsletter and universal programming on-campus, 2) learning about suicide prevention methods and available resources for assistance, and 3) performance of suicide prevention counseling and referral methods. As data will be collected from a multitude of sources, the linking of data across participants and elements will be possible.

Contact Information:
Bonnie Lipton, MPH
Project Coordinator, Health Education
Tufts University
124 Professors Row
Medford, MA 02155
Tel: 617- 627-514
Email: bonnie.lipton@tufts.edu

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