Grantee Types: Garrett Lee Smith Campus

The UWEC Thrive: Pathways to Success and Well-Being program aims to build capacity to help students thrive and reduce risk for school failure due to mental illness, substance use problems, and suicide. This goal will be accomplished by building an integrated, multidisciplinary, and comprehensive prevention infrastructure focusing on

1. better identification and assistance of students at-risk through screening programs,
2. building resilience, life skills, and social connections through outreach programming,
3. strengthening care linkages with campus and local providers, and
4. enhancing mental health services.

Our program will be delivered to the 10,000+ enrolled students annually, targeting our campus’ high-risk groups such as LGBTQ+ (16%), Veteran (3%), racial/ethnic minority (9%), and first/second-year students, along with faculty/staff and community members. The proposed program has three primary objectives driving our activities:

1. By the end of the grant, there will be a 30% reduction in student failure/attrition due to suicide, mental health, and substance use problems.
2. There will be a 10% reduction, each year of the grant, in the number of students in crisis due to suicide, mental health, or substance use concerns.
3. By the end of the grant, have a formalized care network including county crisis teams, hospitals, and outpatient behavioral health providers that will grow by at least 2 new providers each year to facilitate safe care transitions for students between campus and local providers.

To achieve these objectives we will implement comprehensive, voluntary screening practices for early identification of students at risk, connecting them to support resources. Information and trainings regarding effectively responding to students with mental health and substance use disorders will be provided to students, faculty, and staff multiple times throughout the year. The group program at Counseling Services will be expanded in addition to creating and providing resilience and life-skills workshops. Active bystander and wellness outreach programs will work towards reducing negative attitudes and assisting others in accessing help. A peer support specialist program will be implemented to build social connections. We plan to strengthen care transitions by creating a formal network with local providers and by providing training in evidence based assessment, intervention, and prevention practices. This program is guided by the SPRC comprehensive approach to suicide prevention to ensure a solid, well-coordinated, and sustainable infrastructure is created in order to reduce the adverse consequences of mental health and substance use disorders, including suicides and school failure, on our campus.

The University of Tennessee at Martin (UT Martin) UTooMatter project takes a public health approach to prevention. UT Martin is a four-year, public institution of higher education and one of four universities in the University of Tennessee System. The University is situated in Weakley County, rural Northwest Tennessee. As of Fall 2017, approximately 6,800 students were enrolled at UT Martin. With the increased need for mental health services on college campuses UT Martin proposes UTooMatter will reduce the adverse consequences of severe mental illnesses and substance use disorders by (1) To develop a sustainable infrastructure for linking students without adequate mental health resources to health care providers that can provide the appropriate services. (2) To provide the campus with an overall awareness of suicide and substance abuse risk factors, warning signs, prevention and resources through evidenced-based training on suicide prevention and mental health promotion and education. (3) To increase the use of voluntary mental health and substance use disorder screenings and assessments on each of UT MARTIN’s campus. Goal (1) will be addressed by developing and implementing a Crisis Protocol, providing telephonic after-hour behavioral health services, providing telehealth counseling to our 5 Educational Outreach Teaching Centers to reduce time and travel barriers, and creating an interdisciplinary task force to share information. Goal (2) will be accomplished by implementing effective trainings and programs (i.e., mental wellness, suicide, and substance. abuse) and strategies for early identification, prevention, and intervention for our students. Finally, goal (3) will be accomplished by increasing access to screening and creating a culture of help-seeking. UT Martin has provided personal counseling services, clinical health services, and wellness promotion and prevention programs to students for over thirty years with trained and credentialed professionals. A collaborative care model for behavioral health services was created when Student Health Services and Counseling Services (SHCS) merged to form SHCS in 2009. The counselor to student ratio for UT Martin main campus for the 2016-17 academic year was 1:1348. SHCS is committed to assisting students in achieving and maintaining wellness by providing medical and counseling services that address the unique needs of its diverse student population. SHCS recognizes that there are certain factors that make certain populations at higher risk of mental health and substance use disorders than others. The UTooMatter project proposes to target Veterans, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA), and First-Generation college students. Efforts will be made to collaborate with organizations on-campus and off-campus that already serve these populations and our general student body.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s (UTC) Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention (GLS) project is designed to help support and accelerate UTC’s efforts in the development of a comprehensive crisis response plan, to enhance the campus community’s awareness of suicide risk factors and warning signs, increase connection to community resources, and increase trainings for students, faculty, staff, and parents to encourage early intervention and utilization of campus and community resources. Our targeted population will include all 13,000 UTC students, faculty, and staff including; veteran students, students with disabilities, first-generation college students, and LGBTQ students within our population. The GLS grant will help our campus focus on these initiatives by providing us with additional staff to help us in the development of a comprehensive plan, to provide trainings to our faculty, staff, students, and caregivers, and in the creation and distribution of awareness campaigns. The ProtoCall services requested in this grant will provide our campus with a resource for our community to increase crisis response for our entire campus community and includes additional line for community members to report behavioral concerns to encourage and facilitate early interventions related to mental health, suicide, and substance abuse. The project will also engage the larger community by creating partnerships and Memorandums of Understanding community crisis response services, emergency rooms, and service providers. In addition, the efforts of this grant will allow UTC to identify and assist high-risk populations by integrating information into existing alcohol and other drug prevention and education efforts. The total impact of the project is estimated to be approximately 6,000 people over the three-year project period through orientation sessions, staff trainings, student outreach, and community events. Project Goals include: Goal 1: Create an Advisory Board to develop a campus-wide protocol for crisis response utilizing the JED Framework for Developing Institution Protocols for Acutely Distressed or Suicidal College Students and Campus MHAP: A guide to campus mental health action planning.. Goal 2: Utilize evidence-based training, Question, Persuade, Refer gatekeeper training programs, and educational seminars to educate staff, students, parents, community members, and faculty. Goal 3: Enhance the campus community’s awareness of suicide risk factors, warning signs, and resources through programming and promotional materials.

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Stepped CARE Project will create a new service model that both improves student access to mental health resources and provides campus-wide training and year-round suicide screening and prevention activities. Focused on increasing collaboration amongst community and campus stakeholders, this project will offer interventions that range from least intensive (self-directed on-line resources) to high intensive (referral to off campus specialty providers) with several options of intensity between these levels. Because many of USM’s  students are first generation college students in their family and come from low-income rural towns across the state, support for transition and help with resiliency skills are important for student success. The Stepped CARE Project offers resources for all 11,000 students at USM – from the homesick freshman to the recently diagnosed student with bi-polar who struggles with suicidal ideation. A campus-wide screening tool will be used by campus professionals to direct students to the appropriate resources. Financial barriers to assessment and treatment will be removed by covering expenses by campus clinics so they can provide services for free to students. Logistical barriers will be addressed through a campus-wide screening tool that will help professionals get students mental health needs met. This project will also train college students, faculty, and staff to respond effectively to college students with mental and substance use disorders. The Stepped CARE Project will provide outreach services to inform and notify college students about available mental and substance use disorder services.

The University of South Carolina (UofSC) proposes Together We Can, a project to deepen our mental health
infrastructure, increase access to mental health and substance use services, and impact mental health culture on
campus by decreasing barriers to care, including negative beliefs about mental and behavioral health disorders for
campus populations found to be at-risk for increased suicidal ideation and/or decreased help seeking behavior. This
project includes education, outreach, and training to impact five identified target populations: student veterans, LGBTQ
students, students of color, students with low economic resources, and students displaying high-risk behavior. The
UofSC main campus is located in Columbia, SC, where roughly 34,000 students are enrolled. Within a 12 month period,
10% of students seriously considered suicide at some point, 6% intentionally caused harm to themselves, and 1.3%
attempted suicide (NCHA, 2017).

Strategies in this grant include: adding access to ProtoCall behavioral health hotline, regular screening events for students, adding Kognito Veterans On Campus faculty/staff and peer training, offering BASICS interventions within Student Health Services Patient-Centered Medical Home, and using Care and Concern
follow-up postcards to students who have participated in BASICS mandated and voluntary screenings, as well as
students screened with PHQ-9 within medical clinics, or referred by our Behavioral Intervention Team who did not followup
on advised referrals.

Our outreach to target populations includes two innovative projects: identifying faculty and staff within points of contact (positive or stressful) for students in target populations to offer specialized training and messaging; and a Mental Health Advocate program for students, modelled after the Recovery Advocate concept, that will
train students, especially those in target populations, to share a positive mental health story and advocate for students
seeking services and supporting each other when they have mental health concerns. Culturally relevant training and
materials will be developed for our top five international student populations. We will partner with the Student Veterans
Association to develop a Veterans Peer Listening training. We anticipate reaching at least 2,650 campus community
members per year through trainings, educational programs, and increased service utilization. A major message of
Together We Can is that there are many routes to mental health and substance use resources at UofSC to serve every
student: our ProtoCall hotline, Interactive Screening Program, TAO self-directed or therapist-assisted services, and
screening within medical clinics and at screening events, as well as a campus community rich with members who have
the knowledge and skills to refer students to appropriate care. The Together We Can project aims to increase access
to mental health and substance use services, decrease barriers to care particularly to target populations, and create a
more nuanced and skillful campus safety net for our highest risk populations, improving our overall campus mental health
climate.

The proposed project aims to expand the content and delivery of an evidence-based intervention for mental and behavioral health that is designed to increase knowledge, decrease stigma, and encourage help-seeking behavior. By infusing this initiative into the academic and professional standards, this project has the potential to significantly improve mental/behavioral health outcomes and services at the University of Rhode Island. Advancing Mental Health First Aid makes broadly available training to identify, approach, and support individuals who may be struggling with mental/behavioral health concerns. The proposed initiative will develop and implement strategies to centralize and institutionalize the Advanced Mental Health First Aid curriculum through required matriculation and employment trainings, and developing a standing series of open trainings for those individuals who self-select for participation. Implementation of the core Mental Health First Aid curriculum (including the Higher Education module) will be conducted in concert with the development of 6 additional content modules aimed to more directly address the specific risk-factors that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations on college/University campuses, including: the LGBTQ community, international/multicultural student groups, student veterans, members of the Greek system, student Athletes, and students struggling with eating disorders or body image concerns. It is expected that a minimum of 600 participants will be trained during each of the first two years of the proposed project (1200), and an additional 800-900 participants will be trained during the final year (totaling a minimum of 2000-2500 trained participant over the course of the funding cycle). Participants for these trainings will include faculty/staff, and students (undergraduate and graduate) from across University campuses, colleges, and disciplines. Each training will involve self-report measures of participant knowledge of and confidence to use key Mental Health First Aid strategies to identify, approach, and support individuals struggling with mental/behavioral health concerns, including depression, anxiety, substance use/abuse, and suicidal ideation. Additional information will be gathered to evaluate participant awareness of mental/behavioral health resources on campus, as well as their confidence to refer individuals to key service providers at the University. These same constructs will be measured at 3, 6, and 12 months post-training and are expected to demonstrate increased knowledge of and confidence using skills and strategies to intervene on potential mental/behavioral health concerns, as well as increased awareness of and utilization of appropriate campus-based mental/behavioral health resources.