Grantee Types: Community College

Montgomery College strives to create a prepared community with a focus toward preventing and/or reducing the number of suicides and suicide attempts, and seeks to address the need of the College to enhance prevention resources for its counseling staff, faculty, leadership, students, families, and its communities. To inform and guide this initiative, the College will utilize its new Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) on each campus as well centrally (college-wide) through the BIT Steering Committee. This dual strategy allows for localized support on each of its three campuses while it facilitates institutionalization of the project.

This is a transformational project, and the first time submitting to the Campus Suicide Prevention Program. Traditionally, College counselors are trained primarily to provide academic advising. To increase campus suicide prevention efforts, the College is now poised to propose MC Project Aware, and address two goals relating to: (1) mental health training, and (2) capacity building through enhanced linkages internally and externally. The increased awareness and related activities, informed by research, ensure that these two measurable goals are met. The transformation will be sustained over time through BIT.

Montgomery College is a public, open admissions community college in Maryland within the Washington, DC Greater Metropolitan Area, with campuses in Germantown, Rockville, and Takoma Park/Silver Spring, all serving key geographic locations. The college serves more than 60,000 diverse students a year through both credit and noncredit programs in more than 100 areas of study. More than 170 countries are represented on the three campuses. The number of foreign-born residents accounts for a remarkable 30% of the county’s population. More than 500 veterans attend classes. Student organizations and clubs on campus include veteran and Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) populations, as well as counseling and student development services. The entire College, both facilities and grounds, is tobacco-free. The College’s mission speaks to the heart of changing lives for the better.

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.

The GRCC Campus Suicide Prevention Program will build capacity for facilitating mental health education and suicide prevention. Activities will center on creating a strong community network, implementing a Crisis Response Plan, and providing training and education to promote awareness of the need for better understanding of mental health issues and to encourage positive help-seeking behaviors.

Population to be served: The project will serve community college students in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This population will include students who are: low income, academically at-risk, traditional/non-traditional students, and minority students. Targeted student populations are veterans, LGBTQ, and students with disabilities.

Strategies/interventions: REACH© Training Sessions and Mental Health First Aid Training for faculty, staff, and students; suicide prevention and mental health awareness events and campaigns; integration of training into mandatory courses; education seminars and workshops.

Project goals:

1. GRCC will have a strong networking infrastructure that links its campuses with community partners and ensures students, faculty, and staff have access to a broad range of resources;
2. GRCC will have a Crisis Response Plan outlining the protocols for a coordinated response to a crisis on campus including a suicide attempt;
3. GRCC faculty, staff, and students will be trained as gatekeepers;
4. GRCC will implement suicide prevention programming to promote a strong awareness of the need for better understanding of mental health and wellness issues and to encourage positive help-seeking behaviors.

Measurable objectives:

1. The number of organizations collaborating/coordinating/sharing resources with other organizations as a result of the grant;
2. The number of individuals exposed to mental health awareness messages
3. The number of people in the mental health and related workforce trained in mental health-related practices/activities as a result of the grant; 
4. The number of individuals who have received training in prevention or mental health promotion.

People to be served annually: 26 (year 1); 9,600 (year 2); 9,600 (year 3) People to be served throughout the lifetime of the project: 19,226

Gateway Community and Technical College’s (Gateway) Project Campus Assessment, Response, And Evaluation is designed to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors that play a critical role in suicide prevention. The overall purpose of Project CARE is to build capacity and infrastructure to support expanded efforts to promote wellness and help-seeking of all students. The program incorporates outreach to vulnerable students, including those experiencing substance abuse and mental health issues who are at greater risk for suicide and suicide attempts. Gateway’s strategies build and sustain a foundation for mental health promotion, suicide prevention, substance abuse prevention, and other prevention activities such as interpersonal violence and by-stander interventions.

Gateway’s student population is about 4,500 and includes the following demographics: 50% male/female; 48% non-traditional age (>25); almost 90% have individual incomes of less than $25,000; and over 50% are first in their family to attend college. First-generation and lowincome students face many challenges to college success. Seven factors put Gateway students at risk of leaving postsecondary education without earning their degrees: delaying entry into postsecondary education after high school; attending part-time; working full-time while enrolled; being financially independent from parents; having dependent children; being a single parent; and having a GED. These risk factors can also cause stressors related to substance abuse and mental health issues promoting a greater risk for suicide and suicide attempts.

Project CARE’s goals include: Goal 1: To increase collaboration among campus and community partners to deliver the message that suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility. Goal 2: To increase the amount of training to students, faculty, and staff on suicide prevention and mental health promotion. Goal 3: To increase the number of educational seminars and informational materials for students, faculty, staff, and family members on suicide prevention, identification and reduction of risk factors. Goal 4: To increase help-seeking among students and reduce negative attitudes for seeking care for mental and substance use disorders among students.

The total number of people to be served annually include approximately 4,700 students, faculty, staff, and their families through the various strategies described in section B

Summary: The Feather River College Campus Suicide Prevention Project established a consortium of organizations in Plumas County, California, to develop a coordinated community response to the issue of suicide and its prevention at the community college. The Project provides gatekeeper trainings for key individuals to identify and assist students in crisis, as well as education and outreach to promote a campus culture that promotes help-seeking behaviors.

Population to be Served: This Project serves the students of Feather River Community College (FRC), with an annual enrollment of 1,782 students. The student body is 57% male and 43% female. They are ethnically diverse (51% White; 20% Hispanic; 13% African-American; 5% Asian; and 3% American Indian). Among all students, 56% were 24 years old and under and 44% were 25 years and over. 73% of full-time/first-time students receive financial aid. Of all undergraduate students, 61% received grant or scholarship assistance from a known source.

The purpose of FRC’s proposed project is to develop a coordinated response to address campus suicide prevention. The primary needs this proposal seeks to address include:

1. The absence of a coordinated community response from a collaborative body focused on suicide prevention;
2. The lack of training, education and outreach for faculty and students on warning signs, available resources, and how to refer to and access resources; and
3. A campus culture that does not discuss mental and substance use disorders or actively encourage help-seeking behaviors.

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.

The proposed project enhances capacity of Bergen Community College (BCC) prevent suicide through a campaign to de-stigmatize and address issues relate to suicide and emotional well-being. BCC aims to successfully prepare students to cope with emotional distress by developing connectedness and help seeking skills. Through education, skill building, and access to necessary resources, students are less likely to feel a sense of hopelessness or disconnectedness that are associated factors in the increase of thoughts of suicide.

The targeted project demographics include disabled students, young male population, military-connected (including family members) and veterans, the LGBT population, and those students in our remedial and developmental programming who experience discouragement and disengagement because of slow progress toward academic goals. Of particular concern those who may express or present with feeling lonely, overwhelmed, hopeless, anxious, or down, perhaps with clinical service needs relating to depression and anxiety.

The project goal is to prevent suicide through a campaign to de-stigmatize and address issues relate to suicide and emotional well-being. The project integrates a broad based awareness campaign and turnkey training capacity through:

• 15 staff trained annually in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA);
• 125 students trained in MHFA training during the three years for peer support;
• 6 staff will become certified trainers in MHFA;
• 90% of staff and students completing MHFA will report increased comfort in identifying and intervening in situations where a mental illness or emotional crisis is suspected.
• 50 staff will complete the Connect-Gatekeeper Training.
• A large-scale scale web based survey regularly collects comprehensive information about student mental health and current knowledge of student’s suicidal experiences to promote awareness and inform effective intervention efforts.