Grantee Types: Garrett Lee Smith Campus

Link for Life is a multidisciplinary collaborative effort of Marquette University faculty, staff, and administration. The program will focus on the issues of suicide and those mental health issues that impact suicide by providing suicide prevention training and education to staff and the general student body, as well as parents. Further, Link for Life will teach these individuals, as well as first responders, how to respond to people in a suicidal crisis.

As concerned university and community members, we recognize that suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students (retrieved May 10, 2006 from www.jedfoundation.org) and that many of these students do not get the necessary suicide prevention information. Although we value the goals and objectives of crisis intervention work, we realize that this alone will not educate the larger campus community or prevent further suicides. Therefore, the following goals and activities are proposed.

The chief purpose of Link for Life is to reduce suicidal behavior and ultimately save the lives of our students. The specific goals of this project are: 1) To raise awareness, across campus and among parents, about suicide among young people and to increase knowledge about mental illness, as well as the etiology, risk factors, and warning signs of suicide. 2) To use a nationally recognized suicide prevention model (Question, Persuade, Refer [QPR]) to train Gatekeeper Trainers who will provide QPR training to members of the campus and local communities, including first responders, students, and mental health providers. An emphasis will be placed on creating links within the campus community so that an individual faced with someone in a suicidal crisis knows the campus and community mental health resources well enough to make appropriate referrals to trained professionals. 3) To enhance partnerships between the university and its students, as well as community mental health providers. Link for Life is designed to decrease the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide by inviting the entire campus community and local community health and mental health provides to take an active role in suicide prevention. 4) To review existing intervention efforts employed on other campuses. Marquette University will use the information to develop appropriate policy and procedures, suited to this campus, that reflect best practices and standards of care in the area of suicide prevention. 5) To extensively evaluate the project under the guidance of a Project Evaluator to ensure the activities are as effective as possible and to reduce the potential loss of lives.

The purpose of Loyola University Chicago’s L&U Care-Together project is to enhance current suicide prevention programs to the next level through building a comprehensive and coherent networking infrastructure and implementing culturally and linguistically appropriate and evidence-based best practice standards. While the entire Loyola stakeholders of 15,000 students and 1,800 staff and faculty will benefit from this project, particular attention will be paid to high risk students identified by National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention such as ethnic minority, international, LGBTQ, and veteran students. For this purpose, L&U Care-Together project establishes three strategic goals and activities:

Goal 1: Create comprehensive infrastructure and collaborative networking by (1) developing and implementing a suicide prevention strategic plan through Campus Advisory Board; and (2) enhancing a more solid, expanded, and seamless networking linkage among diverse entry points on campus and with off-campus resources.

Goal 2: Increase knowledge of suicide prevention and mental health awareness by (1) delivering the Mental Health First Aid gatekeeper training to students, faculty, administrators, and staff; (2) developing culturally and linguistically appropriate and evidence-based informational materials and an educational seminar curriculum modifying Pace University’s Suicide Prevention Multicultural Competence Kit for suicide prevention and mental health; (3) providing formalized and structured educational seminars to increase knowledge of suicide behaviors and to decrease misinformation associated with mental health services; and

Goal 3: Increase help-seeking behaviors and reduce stigma of mental health disorders by (1) promoting a series of public awareness campaigns around National Suicide Prevention Week and World Suicide Prevention Day in order to increase the visibility of National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK (8255)) and community mental health resources.

Lipscomb University proposes “Through our LENS” (Learning, Engagement, Network, Safety) project. This project will raise awareness about suicide prevention through new programming servicing veteran students, minority students, and students with disabilities, will “train the trainers” in “Question, Persuade, Refer” (QPR), and will produce a professional-quality video addressing mental health topics in an engaging way for young adults that can be used by other universities.

In Fall 2013, Lipscomb University experienced the first suicide to take place on its campus in decades when an undergraduate male student took his life in his on-campus dorm room. The campus community drew together in a strong way to openly discuss mental health with the student body and to offer a variety of public and private sessions to help students, faculty, and staff deal with the event and its aftermath. Lipscomb’s Counseling Center led these initiatives with strong support and direction from the university administration, the president himself being intimately involved in the issue for a lengthy period of time.

Since then, the number of clients seeking Lipscomb’s Counseling Center services has more than tripled (from 71 in Fall 2013 to 254 in Fall 2014). Due to this significant increase in demand for mental health services, Lipscomb’s Counseling Center has made it a priority to focus on building capacity within the Center to deal with crisis as well as empowering the campus at large with the infrastructure necessary to implement a suicide prevention plan and sustain that plan throughout the coming years. The Campus Suicide Prevention Grant from SAMHSA will enable Lipscomb to build the capacity and infrastructure, and Lipscomb’s leadership is committed to sustaining the crisis protocols and the programming begun under this grant beyond the duration of the requested funding. The goals of the program are to increase awareness of suicide prevention and mental health in the Lipscomb community and increase the capacity to provide effective suicide prevention and mental health resources. Each year of the project, Lipscomb will train 900 freshman students in QPR, 200 faculty and staff in mental health topics, and will reach the entire student population of 4,000 with mental health awareness messages. The collection of data from surveys will detect the percentage of awareness before and after the dissemination of materials, training and seminars that are a result of the grant to the populations at risk in the Lipscomb community (veterans, minorities, people with disabilities, and students with substance abuse issues), as well as the overall campus population.

LeMoyne-Owen College is a historically black college (HBCU) that is situated on a beautifully landscaped campus in Memphis, Tennessee. The student body is comprised primarily of African American students who are considered “high risk'” for behavior and mental health problems,including those associated with suicide and suicidal behavior. Consistent with its mission of providing a transformative experience educating students for urban-focused leadership,scholarship, service, and professional careers, LeMoyne-Owen College is keenly interested in promoting students’ mental health and in preventing campus suicides.

To this end, it proposes to implement the Magicians STEPS (Suicide Training, Education, and Prevention Services)Project, a comprehensive and coordinated campus suicide prevention initiative. The program centers around (1) Conducting and institutional assessment of campus needs, policies and resources regarding suicide, suicide prevention and other mental/behavioral health concerns impacting students’ progress and success; (2) Educating students, faculty, staff and the broader college community (i.e., parents, families) about suicide, mental and behavioral health problems (e.g., depression and substance abuse) associated with suicide as well as prevention and intervention resources and services available within LeMoyne-Owen’s community to address these problems; (3) Developing and implementing training in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of individuals suffering with behavioral/mental health problems (e.g., suicidal ideation, depression) for various segments of the campus, including students enrolled in “helping professions” such as social work; and ( 4) Evaluating the efficacy of the various educational and training activities, programs and services that will be offered as part of this initiative, in promoting mental health and preventing suicide on LeMoyne-Owen’s campus.

The two mutually reinforcing goals of the Lawrence University Campus Suicide Prevention Project (LUCSPP) are to (1) strengthen systemic and sustainable structures to effectively address the mental health needs of students particularly those at high risk; and (2) change campus culture to reduce stigma, reduce suicide risk factors, and promote awareness and use of mental health services. Our objectives are to: (1) implement project activities in a transparent and inclusive manner; (2) develop new and enhance existing training programs for campus personnel and students to recognize, respond to, and refer distressed students, support students affected by suicidal behavior of others, and respond in culturally competent ways; (3) strengthen internal and external networking infrastructures; and (4) develop comprehensive, culturally appropriate educational outreach approaches tailored to the unique needs of our campus.

We will target the entire student body through comprehensive, culturally competent approaches that address risk factors and promote life skills, resiliency, and social connectedness, particularly among students from diverse sub-populations at higher risk. We will work with key community mental health stakeholders to identify common concerns and share suicide prevention efforts, particularly with other local college campuses; existing and potential partners in crisis prevention, intervention, and postvention; and other organizations serving at-risk youth and young adults.

The primary purpose of the La Salle University Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention Project is to reduce the potential for deaths of students due to suicide or alcohol/drug overdose by increasing outreach to our most vulnerable students; increasing by-stander interventions by faculty, staff and friends and increasing help seeking behaviors by students in need. La Salle has identified the following groups as being most at risk on campus: females whose average Blood Alcohol Level is .08 and above, commuter students, Hispanic students, first generation college, veterans, family members of the military. La Salle has also identified that most of the faculty, staff and students are not properly trained or equipped to deal with students who may be at risk for suicide. This grant will provide training for faculty and staff who come into contact with students on a daily basis. Gatekeeper trainings that help staff and faculty learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade, and refer someone to help will be one of primary methods of creating a preventative culture on campus. Students will learn intervention techniques through interactive simulations with Kognito. Resources will be available to all La Salle students, full and part time by promoting ProtoCall and the Jed Foundation Hotline. Along with these resources targeted printed materials will be developed for different audiences; students, families, veterans, LGBTQ students, etc. Since Spanish is the second most spoken language of campus these materials will be translated. A Grant Implementation Team will be created that will meet on a regular basis for ongoing review of the grant, assessment and evaluation.

The KSC suicide prevention project is a comprehensive, multi-level program designed to educate the college community about suicide and how to respond to someone who is suicidal, to reduce the stigma of counseling, to coordinate prevention and response efforts with the town and state organizations, and to intervene with at-risk students to promote their safety and well-being.

The educational component is multifaceted and includes targeted gatekeeper training, educational seminars, and development of a variety of materials including information about suicide and resources, postvention materials, information for parents, and stigma reduction materials such as stress balls, posters, bookmarks, etc. Educational seminars may be coordinated with outside agencies such as NAMI and include seminars by past and present students about their mental health challenges and triumphs and large group talks on overcoming depression/suicidal thinking and/or happiness.

Response to at-risk students is also multifaceted. It includes working with the local mental health agency to coordinate the assessment of high risk individuals and coordinate treatment upon release and developing policies and procedures for mandated safety sessions. At risk students are defined as those who are actively suicidal, i.e., have either made a suicide attempt or are overtly threatening suicide and students who have been hospitalized or held in protective custody because of alcohol poisoning.

UniversityLifeCafe.org is an innovative, interactive online program designed to engage college students in promoting mental wellness, particularly with regard to prevention of suicide, depression, and substance abuse, and encourage help-seeking behaviors so as to enhance positive experiences and success while in college. This online program complements a comprehensive campus-wide action plan including programming and training for students, faculty, and staff. UniversityLifeCafe.org goes beyond the typical, static, text-based web site of informational pages to engage college students at a deeper level with a complete online program of content and features that are relevant to their needs, interests, and comfort with using the Internet. The mental wellness approach to UniversityLifeCafe.org focuses more on how to be mentally healthy and less on the pathology of mental illness. This friendlier approach lays the groundwork for reducing the stigma of mental illness, and promoting help-seeking behaviors. The content of the program will be developed with a significant amount of student input through campus focus groups. Content will be delivered in a variety of formats, including text, audio, video, and podcasts. Where appropriate, students will be able to download content to their own computer for private use, for printing, or to download onto their MP3 players or iPods. Through the use of discussion boards, blogs, and the like, students will have the opportunity to connect with other students, discuss matters that are important to them, and otherwise learn that they are not alone in struggles they may experience while in college. The campus-wide programming and training efforts involve major student-oriented offices and organizations in reaching out to students and faculty/staff, while respecting the race, ethnicity, cultural background, sexual orientation, and belief system of every member of our campus community. If UniversityLifeCafe.org is found to be useful for students at Kansas State University, it could certainly be made available to other students across the nation.