The purpose of this program is to develop a comprehensive, collaborative, well-coordinated, and evidence-based approach to: (1) enhance mental health services for all college students, including those at risk for suicide, depression, serious mental illness, and/or substance use disorders that can lead to school failure; (2) previdence-based and substance use disorders; (3) promote help-seeking behavior and reduce negative public attitudes; and (4) improve the identification and treatment of at-risk college students so they can successfully complete their studies. It is expected that this program will reduce the adverse consequences of serious mental illness and substance use disorders, including suicidal behavior, substance-related injuries, and school failure.
Grantee Categories: Garrett Lee Smith Tribal
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UA Little Rock) MidSOUTH, in partnership with the UA Little Rock Counseling Services, proposes to enhance its current suicide prevention practices for students attending the university. MidSOUTH is the community outreach arm and training center for the UA Little Rock School of Social Work. Arkansas currently ranks 10th in the national rankings for suicides per capita according to the Centers for Disease Control. UA Little Rock has a very diverse population including students who identify as LGBTQ, have disabilities, and veterans. MidSOUTH plans to work with each of these populations for the campus suicide prevention program. While, UA Little Rock has had numerous suicide attempts as well as deaths by suicide, the benchmark study of UA Little Rock students revealed that only 2.17% of those surveyed reported receiving counseling services on campus. The overarching goal for the UA Little Rock/MidSOUTH Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Program is to prevent deaths by suicide of university students. More specifically, the goal is to increase awareness, provide needed training, and strengthen the processes and collaboration with behavioral healthcare providers in the community to insure students in need receive the best and most appropriate care to prevent suicide attempts and death by suicide. Project staff, Counseling Services staff, student interns, and a parent advocate (parent of a college student who died by suicide) will comprise the Suicide Prevention Committee that will guide the selection of informational materials and training to be offered. A great need for UA Little Rock is to create a network that will link Counseling Services with healthcare providers in the area. Tools and practices that support continuity of care to ensure patients have timely access to follow-up care will be identified and/or developed that include formal referral agreements, interagency agreements, follow-up contacts, and student and family education. In addition, a formal postvention plan for immediate and long-term needs to be established for UA Little Rock. In year one, UA Little Rock/MidSOUTH will work to develop a network of providers that will coordinate closely with the UA Little Rock Counseling Services. In addition, informational materials will be identified and/or developed to be used to increase awareness of suicide and the Arkansas Hotline. Initial training for students, faculty, and staff will also begin in year one. In years two and three, when appropriate referral services are in place, the focus will be to increase awareness of available services on campus, continue distribution of materials, and increase training for students, faculty, and staff. UA Little Rock/MidSOUTH will collect and report all SAMHSA required data.
University of Akron
University of Akron initiative brings innovation, interventions, and collaboration, while maximizing our best resource; students. We will enhance mental health services for students, prevent mental illness and substance use disorders where possible, improve identification of students at risk, and increase health seeking behaviors via three primary pillars: Coordination, Process, and Programs Coordination: The University has recently launched an Addictions Task Force (ATF) to address behavioral health needs of student. The ATF consists of university leadership, faculty, student groups, community organizations, and campus health resources. It is structured into 5 committees that will implement and monitor activities: Communication, Rules and Regulations, Programs, Data, and Steering. Process: Uses the Strategic Prevention Framework model in promoting data informed decision making. This ensures implementation of “best-fit” intervention and prevention activities. This will be accomplished through a 3-year implementation approach: Year 1: Complete a SWOT analysis of student needs and campus resources. Use the resulting data, inclusive of the National College Health Assessment, archival data, and a Resource Assessment, to determine programmatic gaps or underutilized programs, while providing Certified Peer Educator and Ally Training. Year 2: Launch social norming campaign, targeted marketing of campus resources, and establish on-campus clinical field placements. Begin implementation of peer to peer services Year 3. All programs will be fully implemented and generating student-based outcomes; sustainability goals met. Programs: Programming will be a blend of evidence-based curriculums, augmenting screening (SBIRT) provided by clinical interns, development of recovery allied student organizations, and improve health seeking via targeted marketing, stigma reduction, and peer ally referrals. Strategies to address specific goals will include: 1. Increase identification and referral for at-risk students via embedding SBIRT services in the wellness center (@1000/year) 2. Prevention via partnership with community prevention agencies, early intervention/referral, and, and social norming campaigns. (outreach to 22,000 students per year) 3. Promote Health Seeking via peer-led services. This includes BACCHUS and Ally training, while increasing participation in recovery/advocacy-based student organizations. Help Text-line, increased visibility of a Collegiate Recovery Community, and mental health screening days, are to be included. (Increase health seeking by 10%/YEAR) By maximizing clinical field placements, utilizing ATF infrastructure, and enhancing community relationships we are confident this initiative will be sustainable post funding.
University at Albany
The University at Albany, State University of New York (UAlbany) proposes to meet the unique and increasingly complex
needs of its undergraduate and graduate students who are at high risk for suicide and substance abuse through the
enhancement of its nationally-recognized STEPS Comprehensive Prevention Program, listed in SAMHSA’s National
Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) and recipient of over ten national awards for behavioral
health innovation. Project activities will include: 1) development, implementation, and evaluation of an interactive online
audience-specific and responsive gatekeeper training program that addresses the needs, concerns, and subcultures
of our diverse campus stakeholders, so that each of these audiences may respond effectively to students with mental
and behavioral health problems, including suicide risk and substance abuse, and; 2) enhancement, implementation, and
evaluation of the University’s existing innovative, evidence-based substance abuse Screening and Brief Intervention
(SBI) protocol for alcohol abuse to include concurrent screening for depression, anxiety, marijuana, the non-medical
use of prescription drugs, and opioid use.
The objectives of the UAlbany STEPS Program training, educational and screening enhancements will 1) reduce rates of student suicide, suicide attempts, substance abuse, and related mental/
behavioral health problems; 2) increase access to and utilization of campus mental health, substance abuse, and related
primary care services by the undergraduate and graduate students in most need of them, and 3) increase consultations
and referrals of students in need of mental health and substance abuse services by faculty, staff, administrators, and
students who have participated in online audience-specific gatekeeper training. Project initiatives and programs will
reach 21,000 individuals, including UAlbany undergraduate and graduate students as well as campus administrators,
faculty, and staff members. This project has been developed through a strategic planning process involving a diverse
cross-section of the target population as well as a Project Institutionalization Council of key campus and community
partners and stakeholders in response to a critical service need at the University as documented by assessment
survey data and records of critical incidents, including the occurrence of three completed suicides and three substance
abuse-related deaths during the past five years. Building on its long history of commitment and national leadership
in both the suicide prevention and alcohol and substance abuse prevention fields, as well as its successful work and
significant progress under two prior SAMHSA GLS Campus Suicide Prevention Grants in FY 2005 and 2008, UAlbany
has prepared for project implementation by expanding existing collaborative partnerships with a number of groups on
and off campus, including members of the target population of both undergraduate and graduate college students, as
well as the community-based Capital District Psychiatric Center/Albany County Crisis Unit and Mobile Crisis Team.
Two Feathers Native American Families Services
The Two Feathers Native American Family Services of Northwest California, Chekws: Hope for Tomorrow (C-HFT) Project, serves American Indian (AI) youth ages 10-18 and their families in Humboldt County. The system-wide goal for C-HFT is to build an effective, collaborative and sustainable AI-focused mental health and substance use program within two school districts to prevent suicide and improve overall well-being for AI youth and their families. The C-HFT system will operate in partnership with Klamath Trinity Joint Unified School District (KTJUSD) and Northern Humboldt School District (NH), including 24 schools and over 1,200 AI students. C-HFT will also work closely with Humboldt County Department of Mental Health and Stanford Psychiatry, Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health and Well-Being to offer trainings on suicide assessment, prevention, and intervention, as well as telemedicine psychiatric services for acute cases in the schools. C-HFT will utilize evidence-based practice (EBP) interventions and treatment approaches, as well as locally defined, culturally infused practice based programs to increase the safety net of suicide prevention and interventions for AI’s living in Humboldt County. The C-HFT plans to serve 1000 youth through the following goals and objectives: Goal 1: Increase the number of culturally competent professionals able to identify and work with youth at risk for suicide. Two Feathers staff in collaboration with Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services will provide culturally appropriate Mental Health First Aid Training to 80% of school personnel in both school districts. Goal 2: Improve prevention and early intervention for AI youth in the schools. Conduct screening with 200 AI youth annually, 1000 over the course of the 5-year project. Refer 20 parents of at risk youth per year to parent support groups. Refer 30 youth per year to local cultural groups, and 15 youth per school district annually to a trauma informed skills development group. Goal 3: Increase the engagement of youth and their families with accessible, culturally appropriate clinical service providers who can assess, manage and treat AI youth at risk for suicide. Conduct assessments with youth identified as needing a higher level of care based on screening outcomes or referrals form outside providers. Provide intensive therapeutic services to 75 youth per year. Goal 4: Increase culturally appropriate, post-suicide services for AI youth and their families. Provide direct crisis stabilization for all AI youth in the C-HFT school districts who have attempted suicide and their families through “”Family Intervention for Suicide Prevention”” services.
Tule River Indian Health Center
The Tule River Indian Health Center, Inc. (TRIHC) will implement the Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention (TYSP) Project. The TYSP Project will provide much-needed suicide prevention, assessment, and early intervention services for Native American youth (ages 10 – 24), who reside on the Tule River Indian Reservation in Tulare County (California), as well as other Native American youth (ages 10 – 24) from throughout Tulare County. The target population reports high levels of depression related feelings — 23.7%% in past month — and high levels of suicidal ideation — 17.1% in past month. The project will use three (3) evidence-based practices, including: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); Interpersonal Psycho-therapy (IPT); and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). The project will also use culturally appropriate activities, including: sweat and healing lodges; smudging; teaching traditional ways; singing, dancing, and drumming; storytelling; traditional crafts; and traditional games. The goals of the project are to increase the number of educators, health care providers, emergency services personnel, and government agency personnel working with tribal youth in Tulare County who are aware of, and can identify the risk factors associated with, Native American youth suicides and provide early interventions and/or referrals as needed, as well as to increase the number of Native American who are provided with evidence-based suicide prevention, assessment, and early intervention services. At the conclusion of the five-year project period, at least 35% of educational and medical associations active in Tulare County will have incorporated suicide prevention screenings and training into their regular personnel training and patient assessments. Further, at the conclusion of the five-year project period, at least 250 youth will have completed treatment with at least 75% reporting positive long-term effects of the treatment and at least 75% of at-risk youth referred to the TYSP Project following an inpatient stay due to mental health issues will report their experience through the project as productive with a decrease in feelings of depression and ideas of self-harm.
Touro University of Nevada
Touro University Nevada (TUN): Raising Resiliency Together is designed to provide TUN medical students with the knowledge and confidence to identify and overcome the stressors that contribute to substance abuse and mental health issues before they become debilitating and dangerous situations. Medical students face intense stress and experience both mental illness and suicide at a higher rate than their peers and the population as a whole. TUN will build campus capacity and infrastructure to help these students by forming a Behavioral Health Advisory Board and implementing activities including: 1) A coaching program directed primarily at students from underserved and underrepresented populations; 2) A long-term counseling model to increase access to campus counseling services; 3) A series of trainings and presentations for students, faculty, and staff; 3) Self-assessments that flag and refer students to needed services; and 4) Outreach activities that will promote awareness and action for students, faculty, and staff. The programs will reach and serve 1500 faculty, staff and students. TUN enrolls approximately 1,400 students in osteopathic medicine, physician assistant studies, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and education. The osteopathic medicine program is the largest medical school in Nevada. TUN’s student population demographics are: 53% white, 32% Asian, 6% Hispanic of any race, 4% two or more races, 3% black or African-American, 2% unknown, .5% native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and .1% American Indian or Alaska native. Fifty-two percent of TUN students are female and 48% are male. Seventy-four percent of students are age 20-29, 19% are age 30-39, 5% are age 40-49, 3% are age 50-59. The average age of students is 28 years old. Veterans make up .6% of students and .3% are student dependents on VA benefits. The goals of TUN Raising Resiliency Together are to: 1) Grow and strengthen the institution’s infrastructure and network of mental-health and substance-abuse treatment resources and services; and 2) Increase the capacity of resiliency, emotional well-being, and mental health of all TUN students, including those traditionally underserved and underperforming student groups, in order to address the prevalence and severity of mental illness in medical students. The corresponding measurable objectives are to: 1) Increase the number of counseling hours available to students from 30 to 60; 2) Increase student self-awareness of alcohol, drug, and other risky behaviors; 3) Increase student knowledge and awareness of campus and community mental-health resources; 4) Serve 50 students per year (100 total) in a new coaching program to help create resiliency during years two and three; 5) Increase the frequency of campus awareness and prevention presentations to one per month by dean of students and Student Counseling Services, in addition to presentations given by the Drug and Alcohol Committee; 6) Increase student attendance at awareness and prevention trainings and presentations by 10%; and 7) Increase faculty and staff attendance at awareness and prevention trainings and presentations by 10%.
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation Youth Suicide Prevention Program will utilize a system-wide, multi-strategy approach to reduce the incidence of suicide and increase access to appropriate suicide prevention and intervention services for youth and young adults in the CNMI between the ages of 10-24 years old.
The Youth Suicide Prevention goals include the following:
1) Promote awareness that suicidal and self-destructive behavior is a public mental health problem in order to reduce the stigma associated with being a consumer of suicide prevention or intervention services;
2) Increase system-wide capacity to deliver effective suicide prevention and intervention services;
3) Develop collaborations and networks that support common goals in suicide prevention;
4) Improve the usefulness of data surveillance systems to effectively inform suicide prevention and intervention efforts.
The Youth Suicide Prevention Program proposes to implement a multi-strategy approach to address youth suicide in the CNMI. The program will promote behavioral and mental health and wellness; provide suicide prevention education and outreach; provide intervention and treatment services for those at risk of suicide; and provide support for those in recovery from suicide behaviors.
The program’s measurable objectives include the following:
1) Increase community-wide support for the prevention of suicide and self-destructive behavior by promoting public awareness that these acts are a serious public health problem and that many of these acts are preventable;
2) Implement a state-wide campaign that promotes accurate and responsible reporting and portrayals of suicidal behavior and self-destructive behavior;
3) Implement a social marketing plan that promotes behavioral and mental wellness and reduces the stigma associated with accessing suicide prevention and intervention services;
4) Provide training for youth-serving agencies and key stakeholders (including educational institutions, foster care systems, juvenile justice systems, etc.) in recognizing the signs of persons at-risk for suicide and in accessing resources for prevention and treatment programs;
5) Provide training to increase the ability of healthcare professionals and staff to screen for at-risk indicators, identify protective factors, promote resiliency, and refer for appropriate services;
6) Provide training for clergy and community members in recognizing the signs of persons at-risk for suicide and in accessing resources for prevention and treatment programs;
7) Promote and support the presence of protective factors by improving clinical skills;
8) Provide comprehensive direct treatment to at-risk individuals including wrap-around and recovery support services;
9) Improve and expand comprehensive education programs and support services for survivors of suicide;
10) Implement a system of care linking youth-serving agencies, government and non-government partners, community members, peers and other appropriate stakeholders;
11) Increase collaboration with public and private nonprofit organizations;
12) Increase the number community-based support groups;
13) Develop and implement a comprehensive uniform system of data collection;
14) Develop a database that links and analyzes information on suicide and self-destructive behavior derived from separate data systems;
15) Measure the effectiveness of the implementation of the goals and objectives;
16) Utilize program evaluation data and analysis to develop a program sustainability plan.
The program goals and objectives will guide a data-driven process which will inform decision-making at all levels.
Texas Christian University
Texas Christian University (TCU) is an establishing a comprehensive program called the HOPE Collaborative, with the purpose of expanding current resources to enhance health-care services to better treat mental health and substance use disorders, as well as prevent suicides and suicidal behavior on campus. The HOPE Collaborative seeks to generate a campus climate change through nationally recognized trainings and workshops, voluntary screenings across campus
for mental health and substance use problems, creative outreaches, social marketing, and integrated clinical care. In addition to the campus population as a whole, the HOPE Collaborative will specifically target students at risk for suicide, depression, serious mental illness, and substance use disorders that can result in school failure. The project will further incorporate specialized preventive services for students who are military veterans, identify as a gender or sexual
minority, and/or are first-generational college students. TCU is a private, four-year teaching and research university located in Fort Worth, Texas.
There are 10,394 enrolled students, with an ethnically diverse population of about 30%. The need for the HOPE Collaborative is pressing as the number of critical mental health and substance use incidents on campus is escalating. For example, during the fall semester of 2017, 366 students presented to counseling with significant depression, 166 students reported thoughts of suicide, and 27 students visited an emergency room due to a substance abuse crisis. In some case, these numbers from the previous semester surpass the totals from previous academic years. Fortunately, the HOPE Collaborative is designed to reach approximately 4,000 people annually through the lifetime of this project. The HOPE Collaborative has 5 goals, founded in best practices, which will impact the university’s policy and processes, the utilization of mental health services, and campus knowledge/attitudes regarding mental health issues and substance use among TCU students. These goals are 1) Enhance mental health services for all college students and for those at risk (Employing a crisis care counselor and establish a “Let’s Talk” program); 2) Implement evidence-based trainings to teach responses to mental health and substance use disorders (utilizing Mental Health First Aid); 3) Provide suicide prevention training and resources to faculty (QPR and “Red Folders”); 4) Promote help-seeking and administer voluntary screenings (marketing campaigns, “Mood Check Days,” “Sober Tailgates” at athletic events); and 5) Create specialized preventive services for students of at-risk groups, (Training Symposium for veterans, certified more Safe Zone Allies instructors, “First Gen Days” for first generational students).
Texas A&M University – College Station
The Texas A&M University Department of Suicide Awareness and Prevention will develop a comprehensive, collaborative, well-coordinated approach to enhance efforts to reduce risk of suicide and substance-related death for over 63,000 Texas A&M students. Efforts include a mental health stigma-reduction campaign and training to improve the identification and referral of at-risk students so they can safely and successfully complete their studies. The project will serve the 63,000 Texas A&M students on the main campus, as well as an additional 5,000 distance learners located at special purpose campuses. Texas A&M is a Tier 1 research institution with a student population that is 57% White, 21% Hispanic, and 7% Asian. Texas A&M is consistently one of the top-ranking schools in the country for Veterans. A&M is also home to the Corps of Cadets, a leadership training program that commissions more military officers than any other institution with the exception of the nation’s service academies. The estimated rate of college student suicides is 7.5 per 100,000 students. This equates to between 4 and 5 deaths by suicide per year. With 9 deaths by suicide in calendar year 2017, the rate is nearly double the predicted number. The Student Counseling Service will take the lead in the creation of a campus-wide effort to collaborate in support of at-risk students. A comprehensive awareness campaign will focus on the availability of supportive resources to assist students both on and off campus. Existing Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper training will be provided with the goal of increasing capacity to train faculty, staff and students to identify and refer students that are in psychological distress. In addition, a 3-year license will be purchased for Kognito, an evidence-based computer simulation that teaches techniques to provide support to distressed students. This tool will be available for all faculty, staff and students. Project goals include the creation of a single point of coordination for campus-wide primary, secondary and tertiary response to reduce the risk of suicide on campus; to increase the capacity of students, faculty and staff to identify and support at-risk students; to increase the awareness of available services; and to form partnerships with student organizations that focus on student well-being. Objectives include holding meetings with community stakeholders, holding 2 general mental health and 2 suicide-specific awareness events, providing monthly promotion via email 100% of the Texas A&M faculty, and the provision of 5 trainings to the 180-member staff of Residence Life. Over the life of the grant, 100% of the student body and faculty will receive information about suicide prevention efforts and will have the opportunity to receive gatekeeper training. A projected 1,000 students will participate in suicide prevention events. Through this effort, the number of trained suicide prevention gatekeepers will double from 12,000 to 24,000.