Grantee Types: Garrett Lee Smith Campus

North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University Suicide Prevention Program will focus on the needs of the following special populations: students in sororities and fraternities, military family members and veterans, lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) youth and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth at NC State. NC State undergraduates also comprise an age group that is at high-risk of suicide.

Provision of a comprehensive array of suicide education and prevention programs will address suicidal behavior, risk and protective factors of students from at-risk groups. Educational material emphasizes how to reach out to students in distress and where to refer them either on campus or in the local community. Programs shall include: Question, Persuade, Refer Gatekeeper Training; the Suicide Prevention Multicultural Competence Kit; and At-Risk for University Students. The first two programs target gatekeepers, including student leaders, student members of at-risk groups, and faculty and staff that work directly with students. QPR training will be offered to approximately 300 students per semester each academic year. The SPMC Kit presentation targets the over 2,000 full-time faculty members of the 65 departments in the university over the first 2 years of funding, and then all incoming faculty and staff working with students. The third program targets those almost 5,000 students incoming to NC State annually for the last 2 years of funding (and thereafter), although the avatar-based online program will be available to all students.

NC State will partner with a variety of community and campus collaborators in support of this program, including the DHHS-Division of Public Health Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (DHHS-IVPB), which was the 2008 State/Tribal Garrett Lee Smith grant recipient. The well-established University Counseling Center, Risk Management Case Manager, and Department of Social Work play central roles in support of this endeavor. The overall goal of the proposed project is a university culture and climate that encourages outreach and help-seeking behaviors and discourages prejudice and stigma, in order to achieve a long-term reduction in complete suicides and suicide attempts.

North Carolina Central University

The North Carolina Central University Honest Conversations in Safe Spaces Suicide Prevention Program will strengthen NCCU’s capacity and infrastructure to provide coordinated behavioral health programming that promotes mental health and suicide prevention. This comprehensive program will include campus/community collaborations, gate keeper training, and mental health promotion programming that targets those students considered at greater risk of suicide. Using a public health model, the project will bring together community and campus stakeholders as members of a Suicide Prevention Coordinating Committee which will be tasked with developing a comprehensive suicide prevention effort that includes the development of a suicide response protocol that campus mental health professionals and other administrators will follow when working with students with suicidal behavior and an organized tracking or monitoring system for those students. In addition, to reduce the risk of suicidal behavior, the proposed program will implement specific mental health promotion interventions and strategies to reduce risk factors associated with suicide, while also enhancing protective factors. While these strategies will be available to the entire NCCU student population of mostly African American students, a special focus will be placed on programming with targeted groups of students who are considered at high risk for suicide, including students who identify as LGBTQ, students with disabilities and veterans and military affiliated students. Goals for the program are described as follows:

• To assemble a network of collaborators, a Suicide Prevention Coordinating Committee, who will provide advice, collaboration and resources for the development and implementation of suicide prevention initiatives and a written protocol for responding to students in crisis.

• To produce and distribute to students, faculty, staff, written material and media messages related to mental health and suicide prevention.

• To develop and provide to NCCU’s gatekeepers training that increases the campus community’s awareness of risk and protective factors of suicide, promotes help seeking behavior, and reduces stigma related to mental health and substance abuse disorders.

• To develop and deliver culturally relevant programming which increases the awareness of mental health and substance abuse and reduces the stigma attached to mental health and mental health treatment with the general student population and with the targeted high risk groups. Specific interventions include focus groups with students from the targeted groups to achieve cultural competence of programs and materials, signature campus wide health promotion events, and on-line interactive training tools specifically designed for the targeted groups.

Niagara County Community College

Niagara County Community College (NCCC), a rural community college located in western New York State, proposes to implement the NCCC Campus Suicide Prevention Program.  The goal of the program is to create a campus environment that reduces suicidality in all its forms of expression among the entire population of students. NCCC will raise awareness through education of administrators, faculty, staff, and students of the college of the signs of depression and suicidal ideation, and will promote students’ sense of belonging through the creation of targeted peer groups.  Specifically, the NCCC Suicide Prevention Program will target the at-risk populations of Veterans and their families, Native American students, and students from the LGBT community.

Niagara County is an area of 820 square miles with a population of 219,846 (2000 Census), split evenly between an urban population (111,134) and a rural population (108,712).  NCCC uniquely accommodates both rural and urban students. Countrywide, the population is 90.7% Caucasian, 6.1% Black, .9% American Indian, and 1.3% Hispanic.

Rather than focusing on the suicidal student as the problem, NCCC wishes to focus on its campus environment in an effort to reduce suicidality in all its forms of expression among the entire population of students.  Rather than simply training NCCC faculty and staff in suicide prevention techniques, NCCC will use funding through this application to hire a Project Director who will oversee the establishment of a caring social network throughout the NCCC campus.  As a result, students themselves will be exposed to suicide prevention educational seminars, college success classes, and gatekeeper training.  Additionally, funding will be used by NCCC, under the direction of the Project Director, to establish student peer groups, especially targeting the at-risk populations of Veterans and their families, Native Americans, and LGBT students.  Prior research suggest that aspects of campus life that increase students’ sense of belonging, such as established campus social/peer groups, are associated with decreased suicidal behavior.

The NCCC Campus Suicide Prevention Program will produce the following measurable objectives:  NCCC will train 448 faculty and students in mental health-related practices and activities, including mental health promotion, each year as a result of the grant; NCCC will enter into formal written inter/activities with 3 organizations, including institutions representing military veterans and their families, the LGBT community, and the Native American community; the NCCC suicide prevention project will affect the entire 6,000+ student population, and 648 students will be directly exposed to mental health awareness message; and a minimum of 100 faculty, security personnel, and students will receive Gatekeeper training in suicide prevention.

New York University

LiveWellNYU: The Development and Evaluation of a Holistic Approach to Improving Wellness, Building Resilience, and Preventing Suicide will develop new infrastructure to support population-level primary prevention activities, such as promoting positive mental health through resiliency skill building, facilitating students in engaging in healthy behaviors, and creating a social and cultural environment that supports the entire spectrum of student health.

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. The NMSU Counseling Center currently 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 the larger network of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK.

Outcomes pertaining to the CALL such as number of CALL Responders (those answering the warm line) trained, number of calls received, caller issues, etc., will be tracked 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 tracked 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.

New Mexico Highlands University

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.

Mt. San Antonio College

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.

Morehead State University

Morehead State University seeks to create a Suicide Prevention Program that will systematically create a campus environment that is safer for all students, staff, and faculty, to intervene and assist those at risk for suicide, and to create an enhanced infrastructure to promote a cultural change regarding the perception of mental health. This will be accomplished using a public health model, expanding programs and services, and targeting 25% of all MSU students. QPR training will be provided to help everyone recognize and respond to those identified as at risk for suicide. Suicide is currently the second leading cause of death among college age students in the U.S, with 521 deaths by suicide in Kentucky alone during 2010 (CDC Report, 2010). The success of this model on college campuses rests on the ability to detect students at risk for suicide, effectively referring them for a professional evaluation, and providing access to meaningful and appropriate mental health treatment. The goals and objectives for the MSU Suicide Prevention Program are as follows: to develop momentum among campus administrators and leadership through presentations and discussion on the importance of suicide prevention activities to the MSU campus; to educate the community of students and stakeholders in suicide prevention indicators by providing QPR Gatekeeper training with targeted groups of students, staff, faculty, and community stakeholders; to provide information to parents of MSU students during student orientation on identification of depression and other mental health issues, specifically warning signs of suicide, and the intervention process; to develop and build infrastructure for MSU Suicide Prevention Plan, including a written protocol for the behavioral intervention team; to establish campus advisory groups and main campus and 4 regional campuses; to build community networks and establish partnerships between MSU and community mental and physical health providers; to develop a protocol for postvention and establish policies and procedures to serve as a guide for managing situations when there has been a suicide attempt. The MSU Program will follow the model outlined by Jed Foundation Campus MHAP. It is evidenced-based and data driven and has been established as the best practices method for a comprehensive community-based approach to promote mental health among college and university students. Evaluation and data collection will aid in determining if grant activities are producing the desired outcomes of reducing incidence of suicidal behavior on our campus. Ethical and responsible oversight of this grant will be performed to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our youth at high-risk, culturally compliant, adhering to CLAS standards and using the grant resources appropriately.

Montgomery 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.

Montana State University

Through the proposed project, Outreach and Suicide Prevention at Montana State University, Counseling & Psychological Services (CPS) at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT, will expand and enhance suicide prevention training/resources and preventive programming currently provided to the MSU community. CPS and grant staff will work collaboratively with campus stakeholders to create a comprehensive plan for suicide prevention and mental health programming.

Despite best efforts to provide gatekeeper training, awareness of mental health resources, and preventive programing, MSU has still experienced approximately 30 serious suicide attempts or gestures in the last three years, and lost 9 students to suicide.

For the past thirty years, Montana has ranked in the top five for nationwide suicide rates in all age groups, and suicide is currently the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 15 and 34. At Montana State University, 60% of our student population is made up of Montana residents, and the majority of students are between the ages of 15 and 34. Furthermore, MSU has a substantial number of students who belong to groups who are statistically at greater risk for suicide, including: American Indians, LGBTQIQ students, veterans and their families, and males. While some students from these groups engage in services at CPS, many at-risk we students may not know about the services offered at CPS, or may prefer to reach out to others in the community (peers, campus leaders, faculty, or other staff). CPS will use grant funding to more widely publicize suicide prevention resources, as well as educate the campus community about risk factors for suicide and how to respond effectively to at-risk students.

MSUs team of psychologists and public health experts will utilize funds provided by SAMHSA’s Campus Suicide Prevention Grant to 1) certify 16 additional QPR Trainers; 2) maintain current online mental health screenings to screen 400 individuals for anxiety, depression, PTSD, eating disorders, and substance abuse; 3) Add online suicide prevention training programs and purchase QPR materials to train 900 new students, faculty, staff, and parents as gatekeepers; 4) collaborate with the existing Suicide Prevention Task Force to create suicide prevention/response protocol and to enact a comprehensive plan for suicide prevention as recommended by the Jed Foundation and Suicide Prevention Resource Center; 5) launch a comprehensive marketing strategy to publicize and promote prevention efforts and mental health education/awareness; 6) provide prevention programming to 600 individuals, including 120 Native Americans, 80 veterans, 40 LGQTQ individuals, 150 fraternity/sorority life members, 300 international students, 60 student athletes, and 600 men.