Grantee Categories: Garrett Lee Smith State

National-Louis University

National-Louis University, a broad-access institution in Chicago, proposes NLU-SPI, a suicide prevention approach in which a network of internal and external partners will develop a university-wide process for responding to students’ mental health needs; oversee training for staff and students; implement social media and other outreach to increase awareness of services; and increase knowledge of how to understand and respond to the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACES). The project will focus on three vulnerable populations: an undergraduate program designed specifically for first-generation, predominately low-income students; veterans and military-connected family members; and young adults with intellectual and multiple emotional disabilities. Over 1,500 primarily African-American and Hispanic students will be served annually, for a total of 4,500 students over the three years of the project. The six project goals are:

  • Goal 1: Create a comprehensive infrastructure and collaborative network of internal and external partners that will establish a proactive and cohesive plan to monitor and respond to student mental health needs;
  • Goal 2: Implement a comprehensive training program to increase student, faculty and staff capacity to recognize and effectively respond to warning signs of self-harm, suicidality, and substance abuse in others;
  • Goal 3: Increase student knowledge of mental and substance use disorder services by developing a student outreach plan focusing on the three target populations;
  • Goal 4: Increase student access to voluntary mental and substance use disorder screenings and assessments;
  • Goal 5:Increase student knowledge of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (TALK) as well as others other relevant lifelines;
  • Goal 6: Create a Trauma Informed culture that starts with an understanding of the life-long impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The impact objectives focus on increasing faculty, staff and student knowledge and changing responses to mental health needs:
  • By Y3/Q4 faculty, staff and students will show a 20% increase over Y1 baseline in knowledge about how to recognize and effectively respond to warning signs of self-harm, suicidality, and substance abuse in others;
  • By the end of Y3/Q4 there will be a 20% increase over Y1 baseline in faculty and staff reporting on student mental health needs;
  • By the end of Y3/Q4 students will show a 20% increase over Y1 baseline in knowledge about mental and substance use disorder services as measured by SPEAKS survey, designed for GLS campuses.
  • By Y2/Q4, students will show a 25% increase over Y1 baseline data in participating in voluntary mental and substance use disorder screenings and assessments

National University

National University Wellness Program National University (NU) is proposing to implement the

NU Wellness Program, including the creation of NU’s first cross functional Campus Assessment Response and Evaluation (CARE) team with Wellness resources, such as individual case management, assessment, online treatment opportunities, and referral services for the targeted community. The target population of the program includes all current students attending NU either onsite or online, both undergraduate and graduate. A total of approximately 29,000 students. NU is a Hispanic serving institution with a Latino population of 25%. Ten percent of the population is African American; 58% are female, and 21% are Veterans/Active Duty Military. The Program will augment its current infrastructure to improve effective identification, intervention, and prevention services for all students, including those at risk for the development of suicidal behavior, serious mental illness, and/or substance-related overuse or injury.

Activity #1: Create a network infrastructure to link the institution of higher education with appropriately trained behavioral healthcare providers and community stakeholders.

Activity #2: Train college students, faculty, and staff to respond effectively to college students with mental and substance use disorders.

Activity #3: Administer voluntary mental/ substance use disorder screenings and assessments.

Activity #4: Provide outreach services to inform and notify college students about available mental and substance use disorder services.

The goal of the proposed program is: The NU Wellness Program will augment its current infrastructure to improve effective identification, intervention, and prevention services for all college students, including those at risk for the development of suicidal behavior, serious mental illness, and/or substance-related overuse or injury.

Objective #1 – By month three, develop and implement a centralized reporting system and awareness trainings.

Objective #2 – By month four, utilize the newly-developed centralized reporting system to collect and analyze data

Objective #3 – Beginning in month six, develop and provide online and onsite trainings for students, faculty, and staff.

Objective #4 – In month three, develop case management processes and procedures, and by month four, roll out these policies and procedures to key stakeholders including faculty and staff to begin managing student cases.

Objective #5 – Beginning in month six, offer and expand resources and information for mental health treatment to all students at the University.

Number of people to be served annually: 1,000 and over the 3-year life of the project: 5,000

Montclair State University

Project Suicide Awareness Violence Education and Response (Project SAVER) aims to build and support sustainable infrastructure for suicide and violence prevention at Montclair State University (MSU) and throughout campuses across New Jersey (NJ) by establishing The University and College Alliance for Prevention of Suicide (UCAPS). This statewide collaborative will inform and support all institutions of higher education in NJ as well as MSU, a diverse public institution of higher education located in Montclair, NJ, 14 miles from New York City. MSU is listed as one of Campus Pride’s top 25 LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges and Universities and designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution. The University’s nine colleges and schools serve more than 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students with more than 300 doctoral, master’s and baccalaureate level programs.

In addition to establishing UCAPS, Project SAVER endeavors to:

(1) launch a statewide database of referral resources that MSU students and other universities can access,
(2) implement gatekeeper training for all MSU staff and faculty,
(3) bolster MSU counseling center clinicians’ skills in assessing and treating suicidal ideation and other high risk mental health problems,
(4) augment current outreach via social media and other technology based formats, linking students to crisis supports (National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Crisis Text Line),
(5) implement online psychoeducation and training that assists students in battling stress, anxiety and depression, and
(6) shift campus attitudes toward help seeking and decreasing stigma related to mental illness through public messaging campaigns.

These initiatives aim to provide universal prevention to reach all MSU students through one or more facets of Project SAVER, engage all MSU staff and faculty in gatekeeper training by the end of grant funding, and extend the reach of this project to students and staff at universities and colleges across New Jersey through the UCAPS consortium.

Goals and objectives of this project will be evaluated using both quantitative data (data from electronic medical records, surveys, questionnaires, and analytics provided by social media and other web based programs) and qualitative data (Suicide Prevention Committee/UCAPS feedback as well as interviews with and reports from students, faculty/staff, and JED Campus experts). While the majority of Project SAVER programs are intended to reach and impact all MSU students, it is estimated that at least 25% of MSU students (~5,000) will be directly served by one or more components of the proposed project.

Mississippi State University

The MSU It Takes a Community initiative is a new multidisciplinary program at Mississippi State University – Starkville designed to make suicide attempts and death by suicide a never event. Informed by the 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and based off the SPRC’s comprehensive suicide prevention program, this new initiative aims to reduce suicides by 1. Increasing student connectedness and fostering belongingness; 2. broadening our mental health network by providing gatekeeper training to student leaders, faculty, and staff; and 3. creating new health and wellness initiatives aimed to help reduce suicidal ideation and encourage help-seeking behaviors. MSU is the largest university in the state of Mississippi with an enrollment of 21,883 students and growing. Although a majority of our students are from the state of Mississippi, 65 percent, we have a large number of out-of-state, 32 percent and international students from 80 countries around the world, 4 percent. Our campus is extremely diverse with 18.6 percent of students being African American and 28.3 percent affiliating with an ethnic minority group. The MSU Initiative has nine primary objectives based upon the SPRC evidence-based model. The project aims to 1. increase our ability to identify and assist students in distress, 2. increase student help-seeking behaviors, 3. provide evidence-based, effective care, 4. improve links between providers to ensure seamless transitions, 5. increasing connectedness, 6. teach new life skills and increase resilience, 7. reduce access to suicide means, 8. implement a postvention plan, and 9. utilize an evidence-based crisis response plan. The focus of the project will be building the infrastructure for a sustainable, evidence-based comprehensive suicide prevention program. Through this funding we aim to train at least 1,000 students, faculty, staff, and community members. We will also build a strong infrastructure through further development and validation of our gatekeeper training, developing a first year student course designed to teach life-skills and improve resilience, improving the mental health services offered on campus, and implementing service-learning opportunities designed to increase connectedness and reduce burdensomeness. Although the grant funding will last only three years, the focus of our initiative is to create a permanent and sustainable suicide prevention network at MSU aimed at making suicide a never event. The project is based upon the recommendations in the 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, inspired by Zero Suicide, and takes advantage the SPRC’s evidence-based model for comprehensive suicide prevention.

Mississippi

MS GLS19 is a collaboration between the MS Department of Mental Health, Mississippi State University and Region 8 Mental Health aimed at reducing youth suicides by providing: a) expanded suicide awareness and gatekeeper training for families, schools, communities and youth-serving organizations statewide; b) improved identification and clinical services for at-risk youth; and c) the development of statewide rapid response postvention services. The project will: 1) increase the number of youth-serving organizations who are able to identify and refer youth at risk of suicide by providing gatekeeper training to at least 5,000 educators, childcare professionals, community care providers, and individuals in foster care and juvenile justice agencies annually; 2) increase the capacity of clinical service providers to assess, manage, and treat youth at risk of suicide by referring at-risk youth for mental health care services within 24 hours of suicide screening completion; 3) improve the continuity of care and follow-up of youth identified to be at risk for suicide, including those who have been discharged from emergency department and inpatient psychiatric units by providing statewide postvention training to at least 1,000 family members, friends, educational institutions, juvenile justice systems, substance use disorder programs, mental health programs, foster care systems, and other child and youth support organizations annually; and 4) provide postvention support services for families statewide within 24 hours of notice of suicide death or attempt. This project will build upon and integrate initiatives developed by DMH and MSU under previous Garrett Lee Smith grant-funded projects, Shatter the Silence awareness and prevention campaign (DMH), and The Alliance Project gatekeeper training (MSU). The project will serve an estimated 6,000 people annually (30,000 over five years) with suicide awareness and prevention, gatekeeper and postvention trainings to families, schools, communities and youth-serving organizations. Region 8 Mental Health expects to provide continued mental health services a total of 2,130 students over five years within its five-county catchment area through employment of school-based therapists who will conduct suicide and mental health screenings and make appropriate referrals to treatment services. An estimated 32,130 Mississippians will be served in some capacity through the grant activities over the course of five years.

Minnesota Department of Health

The population of focus is all youth and young adults age 10-24 throughout Minnesota; while prioritizing American Indian youth and tribal communities. Having our program provide supports for the entire state, while targeting communities of increased risk, allows for the grantfunded coordinators and liaisons to address emerging issues over the course of the five year  funding and beyond.

Goal number one is to make suicide prevention a core component of behavioral/health care services that will decrease suicide by 10% in 5 years, 20% in 10 years working towards zero deaths. By fundamentally changing the organizations provide care and work with other providers will have lasting impact after the funding period ends.

Goal number two is to implement effective programs to increase communities’ capacity to identify youth at risk and connect them to the coordinated and competent behavioral/health care system to decrease the number of medically-treated suicide attempts. By working with local professionals and caregivers to build the necessary skills to identify youth and risk and know of local resources available to support the youth, we will be build a community of gatekeepers. 

To assist those who are trained to identify persons at increased risk, we are going to also work very closely with youth-serving institutions to change their policies and procedures for providing training to their staff and also for connecting youth to services once identified. For example, we will be working with higher education institutions to use the Jed & Clinton Health Matters Program Framework for comprehensive, sustainable approach to preventing suicides in our college settings.

Goal number three is to support healthy and empowered individuals, families and communities to increase protection from suicide risk. We will be working closely with schools and youth serving organizations to prioritize building protective factors in our youth. The curriculums we selected for schools to implement encourage these protective factors:
• Family and community support (connectedness)
• Supportive ongoing medical and mental health care relationships
• Skills in problem solving, conflict resolution, and nonviolent ways of handling disputes

Building the above supports and protective factors will have lasting impact for the youth involved our programming, well beyond just suicide prevention

Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC)

The Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) Suicide Prevention Project strives to prevent suicide ideation, attempts,and deaths among students by promoting mental wellness and help-seeking behaviors, to support at-risk groups acrossthe College. To achieve this transformational change, the project design utilizes an integrated and coordinated approach.Efforts include: establishing documented evidence-based best practices and procedures; implementing nationallyrecognized prevention strategies; training staff; launching outreach and support to all students (while specificallytargeting those at high-risk) – who are experiencing substance abuse, mental health problems, and life stressors whichmake them vulnerable as well; and creating a strong and beneficial network of community partners and resources. This program will be culturally broad and informed by direct input from students, community partners, faculty, and staff.

Michigan

TYSP-Mi3 will impact rates of youth/young adult suicide by establishing suicide prevention as a core priority in Michigan Child Welfare (CW) system and a growing network of Emergency Departments (EDs) TYSP-Mi3 will increase numbers of gatekeepers and clinical service providers trained in evidence-based prevention strategies and support communities in strengthening local efforts. TYSP-Mi3 capitalizes on a strong track record of public health and academic expertise and unique statewide partnerships. Building on the base established with current GLS State/Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention funding, TYSP-Mi3 program goals are: Goal 1–Build a statewide network of EDs that consider suicide prevention a core priority and consequently implement evidence-based assessment, intervention, continuity of care, and follow-up strategies for youth at risk for suicide and their families. Goal 2–Partner with Michigan’s CW agency to advance and sustain suicide prevention training, screening, and referral practices, with a focus on the state’s foster care system. Goal 3–Strategically embed a cadre of trained gatekeepers and clinical service providers within Michigan’s youth serving workforce who consistently use evidence-based practices. Goal 4–Support local communities to implement suicide prevention best practices tailored to community needs via technical assistance, training, and educational and funding opportunities. Goal 5–Enhance the availability of resources and training for postvention services in the state. Populations of focus include 1) youth ages 10-24 seeking emergency services and 2) CW-involved youth. The University of Michigan’s Psychiatric Emergency Service (PES) will serve as a Technical Assistance Center to support dissemination and implementation of suicide assessment, brief intervention , and continuity of care strategies to at least eight general medical EDs across the state. The program’s current CW collaboration will continue, focusing on 1) training, policy, protocol, and referral network development to support the CW workforce as suicide prevention gatekeepers, as well as 2) expanding screening of youth entering foster care, with a goal of moving screening statewide. Via school, CMH, and community partnerships, youth serving professionals will participate in safeTALK, ASIST, and AMSR to strengthen the network of persons able and willing to help a youth/young adult in crisis. A new Postvention Work Group will be established to improve care for loss survivors. Government and non-governmental work groups will continue to advise the program and each other to enhance communication and strategic planning to ensure a “”Suicide-Safe Michigan.””

Marshall University

Marshall University Suicide Prevention Education Across Campus (MU-SPEAC) program is a collaborative approach between multiple academic and campus departments, including: Social Work, Psychology, Counseling, Public Health, Nursing, Physical Therapy, the School of Pharmacy, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Counseling Center, MU Wellness Center, Office of Veteran’s Affairs, Behavioral Health and Psychology Clinic, LGBTQ Office, Women’s Center, Office of Student Conduct, MU INTO Program, University Residence Halls, Student Support (first generation support), and the Athletic Department. MU-SPEAC will create a comprehensive public health approach to assist individuals at risk for suicidal behavior and to create a safer campus community. The program will also partner with state and community organizations that provide behavioral health support and suicide prevention education. MU-SPEAC will create a campus Advisory Team to provide education and services to prevent suicide among Marshall students. ALL MU students, including specific targeted populations (veterans, athletes, individuals who identify as LGBTQ, first generation, freshmen, medical students, professional groups and other at-risk groups) will be the population served by the programs and services provided in this grant. The taskforce will be comprised of campus and community stakeholders, including students. MU is a multi-campus, public university that provides undergraduate and graduate education to 13,000 students in West Virginia. MU-SPEAC is a public health approach that will consist of developing and providing culturally sensitive training to teach staff and faculty the necessary skills to provide evidence-based screening and intervention for individuals who are at risk for suicidal behavior and other related risk factor behaviors, such as substance misuse. This public health approach will target students at the universal, selective, and indicated levels. Universal strategies will target the entire MU student body to increase population based health and prevention. Specific programs at the level will include: education, gatekeeper training, awareness activities, social marketing, and working to increase help-seeking behavior, while decreasing stigma. Selected populations who have been shown to be at risk for suicide behavior, mental health concerns, and substance misuse will be targeted with suicide prevention strategies. Finally, MU-SPEAC will provide targeted clinical and prevention strategies toward Indicated groups on campus. These will be students who have made a suicide attempt, are in treatment for depression and anxiety, express suicidal thoughts/ideation and plans, are survivors of loss due to suicide, are recovering from substance misuse, and who are survivors of loss due to substance misuse. The MU-SPEAC grant will provide a collaborative framework to develop and implement a comprehensive public health approach using evidence-based programs and practices to address suicide on Marshall University’s campus.

Maine

Suicide prevention and early intervention is essential to support the safety and well-being of Maine young people during adolescence and into adulthood. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (MCDC) proposes to implement Project STAY (Support, Treatment, and Access for Youth) to support prevention, universal and indicated screening, evidence-based treatment, and coordination of care for youth at risk of suicide. To achieve these outcomes, MCDC will implement the following goals and objectives: Goal 1: Increase the number of schools and youth-serving organizations implementing evidence-based early intervention and suicide prevention policies and practices to identify and respond to youth with unmet mental health needs. Goal 2: Increase care management, access to mental health services, and follow-up for youth at high risk of suicide or suicide attempts. Goal 3: Increase the number of educators, care providers, and youth-serving professionals trained in evidence-based practices for screening, assessment, treatment, and follow-up of young people at risk of suicide. Goal 4: Increase help-seeking and improve youth access to care by promoting innovative outreach strategies, including crisis text services and peer-to-peer interventions. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a long history of engaging with community partners to provide innovative suicide prevention interventions across many sectors. We believe that Project STAY will have a positive impact on the well-being of our communities by reducing Maine’s rate of suicide deaths and suicide attempts.