Grantee Types: Garrett Lee Smith Campus

Molloy College’s Student Personal Counseling Center’s proposed program, Stop the Stigma, will be a project to strengthen the infrastructure of the Counseling Center to deliver suicide prevention and education programming. It will jump-start the campus conversation to “stop the stigma” regarding mental health services related to suicide prevention. Through the proposed project, the Counseling Center will execute a comprehensive three-year initiative to address targeted at-risk students and assist them to access services. Efforts will include campus-wide training, development of a crisis protocol, enhanced linkages with outside resources and the expansion of mental health and suicide prevention materials available for students and employees. Stop the Stigma will be launched in the Molloy community in the fall of 2015.

The proposed grant has five goals that will be covered. Goal 1 would initiate the Stop the Stigma program and create an on-campus networking infrastructure. Goal 2 is where the project would set up safe networks where hesitant students can access confidential assistance. This would include an Interactive Screening Program and after-hour crisis hotlines. Goal 3 would be the largest part of the project and will span over two years. This is where the project would develop, design and implement a campus-wide Train-the-Trainer Gatekeeper Program. Through this program, key personnel, selected departments and student leaders will be trained in mental health and suicide prevention and ways to assist at-risk students. Goal 4 would entail partnering with outside agencies to provide educational seminars for targeted populations like veterans, LGBT people, resident students, athletes, students with disabilities and American Indian/Alaska Natives. Molloy will also partner with the New York State Office of Mental Health to host annual state certification training in suicide prevention first aid. Goal 5 would complete the proposed project with expanding the resources and materials in the Counseling Center to be made available for the Molloy College community.  

The Personal Counseling Center hopes this proposed project would assist Molloy College in vital training on student mental health, suicide prevention and crisis response. This project and its success will be measured by the decrease in student emergencies and employee and student response in handling students in crisis. The project’s success will also be measured by the positive response to the trainings and educational program presentations through satisfaction
surveys and anecdotal records along with documented requests for future programming.

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.

The MSU Connection initiative is a new multidisciplinary program at Mississippi State University- Starkville (MSU) designed to make suicide attempts and death by suicide a never event. Informed by the 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, this new initiative aims to reduce suicides by 1)Creating stronger connections between mental health providers across campus; 2) Broadening our mental heath network by providing QPR 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 20,365 students and growing. Our campus is extremely diverse with 20.2% of students being African-American and 24.9% affiliating with an ethnic minority group. MSU also has a strong connection with the military, and 10% of our student body consists of members of the Veterans community.

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 psychosocially2.Systematic training of selected faculty, staff, and student leaders in the Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR) protocol for suicide intervention and referral3.The integration of on- and off-campus mental health services, including referrals to the MSU Counseling Center (MSUCC), Olin Health Center, and area hospitals4.A media campaign aimed at increasing awareness of issues related to suicide prevention, increasing student help-seeking behaviors, and decreasing mental health stigma5.Promoting awareness of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK) in all printed media material6.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.

The Miami University Suicide Prevention and Awareness Program creates a suicide safety net for all five Miami campuses in Ohio and Luxembourg. This safety net will grow by training faculty, staff and students on the warning signs of suicide, developing an all-University crisis response plan using campus and community resources, and providing educational programs to increase awareness, increase help-seeking, and improve student emotional health.

Miami’s population includes selective enrollment, primarily upper middle class residential students and open enrollment, lower middle class commuter students. Clinically, the suicide rate is about average for a college campus, but the binge drinking rate is very high.

The goal of this program is to establish a comprehensive suicide prevention safety net that covers all five Miami campuses. The four objectives are:

1. Develop and provide gatekeeper training in suicide prevention for all members of the Miami University community;
2. Using the Jed Foundation model, create a plan for crisis response that spans all campuses and increases collaborations with community mental health resources
3. Develop and present seminars in resiliency to students/faculty/staff on four Ohio campuses to prevent suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and mental distress, and
4. Provide suicide prevention information to increase help-seeking among students.

The strategies to accomplish this include providing web-based Kognito At-Risk training, developing an in-person training geared for students to supplement Miami’s in-person trainings for faculty and for staff, develop and deliver a program in resiliency for faculty, staff and students, create a Miami webpage dedicated to suicide prevention, and dispel stigma with a nationally-recognized speaker. The overall target for faculty and staff participation is 40% (or approximately 650 faculty and staff); and the overall target for student participation is all entering freshman for three years (10,800 students), and 60% of the remaining students (approximately 10,700 students over three years) for a total impact of 22,150 Miami University community members.

Metropolitan State University, an urban institution with a nontraditional adult student body, proposes to broaden and deepen partnerships with external resources and prepare and engage the university’s many internal stakeholders in suicide prevention. Through messaging, training and educational programming, faculty, students and staff will learn what resources are available and what they can do if they experience a crisis or know someone in crisis.

Metropolitan State serves a nonresidential student body with large numbers of adults, first generation college students, students of color, immigrants and refugees, low income people and other underrepresented at-risk populations, including veterans, people with disabilities and LGBTQA students. The single largest institutional barrier to effective suicide intervention services is the distributed campus environment. The University offers classes at four campuses and 20 other locations spread across the Twin Cities metropolitan area; and many classes are offered during evening and weekend hours. Many students rarely, if ever, come to the University’s main campus in St. Paul where its Student Counseling Services and other support services are available during regular business hours. Moreover, the University does not have a student health service.

The proposed project will include the following:

1. In collaboration with on-campus and off-campus partners, strengthen the University’s crisis response plan, including emergency psychiatry, follow-up care, and training of key personnel so as to enhance the University’s overall capacity to identify and meet the needs of students at risk of suicide, in a timely manner.
2. Involve the campus community in training, educational workshops, and shared information to reinforce the message that suicide is everyone’s responsibility.
3. Increase the number of staff, faculty and student leaders who have received gatekeeper training.
4. Provide educational workshops provided to students, faculty and staff on suicide prevention, risk factors for suicide, and protective factors for suicide.
5. Increase the cultural competency within the University community in responding to students in populations at risk for suicide, including LGBTQ, Veterans, students of color, immigrants, refugees and international students, first generation college students, and students with disabilities.
6. Increase the quality, quantity and distribution of informational resources to educate on suicide factors, protective factors, available resources, and addressing barriers to seeking services for at risk students.

Healthcare professionals are at higher risk for suicide than many other occupational groups. Risk factors for suicide, including depression and substance abuse, occur at alarmingly high rates among students in healthcare professions. Unfortunately, students are reluctant to receive mental health treatment due to a number of obstacles-to care unique to this population. The goals of the proposed project:  Suicide Prevention Program for the Medical University of South Carolina are first, to intervene prior to the development of mental and behavioral health problems with a preventative approach designed to overcome obstacles-to-care that has shown to be effective in medical trainees. Within the prevention program, students will also be given web-based educational materials and self-assessment tools to assist in the recognition of mental health problems and important contact information for free and confidential mental health services. Second, we will utilize the Suicide Prevention Resource Center to provide training to key members of our faculty and staff who have regular contact with students.

Trainings will better equip participants in how to recognize behavioral patterns and warning signs consistent with mental health problems including suicide and intervene appropriately to facilitate and ensure access to necessary mental health services. Participants in the suicide prevention programs will be drawn from a diverse population of students, faculty and staff at MUSC with 64% of health professional students being female; 3% Hispanic; and 19% underrepresented minorities. Although most MUSC students are from South Carolina, approximately one third are drawn from a national applicant pool, ensuring that there is substantial diversity with respect to cultural economic backgrounds. Further, South Carolina is a state with a rich military heritage, and MUSC has special outreach efforts to recruit students who are veterans or family members of active duty military.

The suicide prevention program will start in the College of Medicine including a total of 600 students, with 150 staff and faculty suicide prevention trainees. Participants in the second year of the project will include 1850 students in the College of Medicine, Health Professions and Nursing with 450 suicide prevention trainees. During the third year of the project we will extend the prevention program to the entire MUSC community including the College of Medicine, Health Professions, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dental Medicine, and Graduate Studies involving a total of 2500 students, with 650 faculty and staff suicide prevention trainees. By providing education in suicide and mental health risk reduction to this large and diverse group of students, faculty, and staff from numerous health-related professions, we will not only improve the mental health status of the students but also the quality of care they can deliver to the patients they treat.

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) Train 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 andfamilies of students.