Grantee Types: Garrett Lee Smith Campus

The Cleveland State University Building Partners for Suicide Prevention project will build on campus and community partnerships to strengthen suicide prevention infrastructure. The project will expand gatekeeper training, promote awareness to decrease stigmatization of mental health concerns, engage student leaders, improve communication between providers, and provide follow up care for high risk students. The project focuses on suicide prevention for CSU students and will attend especially to outreach and prevention with two higher-risk groups: LGBTQ+ students and veteran students. In expanding and strengthening the infrastructure, the CSU Building Partners for Suicide Prevention project will meet the following goals: Goal 1: Increase capacity to deliver campus wide trainings that will increase the ability for students/campus members to take appropriate action when there is a mental health crisis. Objective: Train 3700 students and staff. Goal 2: Decrease stigma and encourage help-seeking behaviors and screenings. Objective: Reach 2900 students and staff with de-stigmatizing campaign and screenings. Goal 3: Increase the capacity of the Counseling Center to provide clinical case management and post-hospitalization follow-up care. Objective: Provide direct service for 200 high risk students. Goal 4: Create and maintain system for tracking student suicidal behavior, identifying trends, and measuring the success of suicide prevention efforts.

“Carleton College GLS Campus Suicide Prevention Initiative: Everyone’s Responsibility” leverages existing campus services and community networks to ensure that suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility. This ambitious program will serve all 2000 students each year, with focus on particular vulnerable populations, including LGBT students and those experiencing substance abuse and mental health problems; provide training for 200 faculty and 100 gatekeeper staff; and develop yearly communications and programs for parents. The Carleton project incorporates goals and objectives from the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) and aims to implement a comprehensive and data-driven approach to suicide prevention, with the vision that one death is too many. Carleton project goals include:

(1) adoption of zero suicides as an aspirational goal on the Carleton College campus; and
(2) promotion of positive mental well-being as the norm on the Carleton College campus.

Carleton will facilitate a comprehensive public health approach to preventing suicide, promoting prevention as a core component of all campus health care services. The project will build essential capacity and infrastructure to support expanded efforts to promote wellness and help-seeking of all students. Demographics of target audiences include students who identify as minority (24.4%), first-generation (11.1%), and GLBT (12.1%, plus 12.2% unsure/other), and those experiencing two or more stressors in the past 12 months (41.9%). As Carleton promotes its primary goal of zero suicides, it will achieve ambitious, measurable outcomes related to four objectives:

(1) developing collaborative responsibility among campus and community partners to increase referral capacity, especially for high-risk students, and deliver the message that suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility
(2) providing educational seminars and informational materials for students, faculty, staff, and family members;
(3)providing training to students, faculty, and staff on suicide prevention;
(4) increasing help-seeking among students, and reducing negative attitudes for seeking care for mental and substance use disorders among students.

The primary goal will be complemented by a second goal of promoting mental well-being, which will include specific outcomes related to three objectives:

(1) training students, faculty, and staff about protective factors and mental health promotion behaviors;
(2) utilizing new and existing educational seminars and materials for students, faculty, staff, and family members regarding protective factors and mental health promotion behaviors;
(3) providing sustained messaging regarding mental health awareness.

A distinctive feature of the Carleton GLS suicide prevention project will be the leadership role of the new Office of Health Promotion (OHP), whose mission is to create the healthiest possible campus environment in which all students are able to flourish. OHP strategies include advocating for health-supporting environments guided by cultural inclusion, respect, equality and equity; focusing on population-level outcomes for the prevention of high-risk behaviors; and promoting overall well-being through the use of initiatives that are evidence based and/or theory informed. The OHP also coordinates a SAMHSA “Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success” (PFS) grant to reduce drinking and marijuana abuse on the Carleton campus. The Carleton GLS Suicide Prevention project will coordinate with and support the strategies of the PFS grant.

To meet the needs of the campus community, Boise State is seeking the GLS grant to help fill current education,
resource, and infrastructure gaps that exist for students that may be struggling with mental health and/or substance
use. Boise State is committed to implementing the Caring Broncos Project, a comprehensive suicide prevention
program to enhance efforts already initiated to offer education, resources, early intervention, and a continuum of
care for students. From fall 2012 to fall 2017, Boise State University had ten students complete suicide. In January
2018, two Boise State students completed suicide. Students, faculty, and staff at Boise State University are severely
impacted by each completed suicide; often, the campus community is left with feelings of sadness, frustration, unease,
and uncertainty due to limited awareness and access to support resources for mental health and substance abuse.
Current efforts at Boise State are disjointed and lacking coordination: there is no central office currently maintaining
primary responsibility for training and education, there are gaps in campus-wide policies and protocols, and limited
collaboration between area hospitals and other community agencies. The project name centers on one of Boise State’s
Shared Values of Caring. The purpose and use of grant funds will be to develop comprehensive, coordinated, and
sustainable suicide prevention efforts on the Boise State campus. To achieve this purpose, Boise State has established
four primary goals:

(1) Implement evidence-based programming to increase campus awareness of warning signs and
high-risk behavior associated with suicide and mental illness.

(2) Decrease the number of students seriously considering suicide by implementing a comprehensive wellness model that promotes help-seeking amongst diverse student
groups.

(3) Increase the University’s capacity to provide students a continuum of care post-hospitalization to reduce the
number of acute crises.

(4) Increase outreach efforts to students at high-risk with mental health and substance abuse
needs.

Measurable objectives for this program include increased education, training, and outreach for the campus
community, increased utilization of mental health and substance use screening tools, a more streamlined approach to
identifying and responding to mental health concerns, and increased collaboration with community providers to help
support a continuum of care for Boise State students. These strategic efforts will strengthen infrastructure, community
relationships, promotion of wellness and help-seeking, and outreach to vulnerable student populations, with a focus of
student veterans. Boise State is committed to implementing a comprehensive prevention program to help meet student
needs. Estimated number of people to be served in year one of the project – 700, year two – 3300, and year three – 4000.
Total number of people served: 8,000.