Grantee Types: Garrett Lee Smith Campus

The University of South Florida Collaborative Suicide Prevention Project is a three year initiative, which will build upon university and state level resources and programs to enhance the existing university infrastructure and capacity, through improved collaborative partnerships across departments, student-led organizations, and community agencies, to develop a comprehensive suicide prevention approach to identify at-risk students through gatekeeper trainings, refer and link students to services through the Students of Concern Assistance Team, and train mental health professionals who, as a result of a professional training program, are able to assess and manage suicidal risk in students.

The goals/measurable objectives of this campus project are to (a) increase the number of persons involved in suicide prevention efforts; (b) increase the number of memorandums of understanding across departments and offices and with the community; (c) enhance the existing campus suicide prevention crisis plan and resource directory; (d) reduce barriers and improve attitudes toward suicide prevention amongst campus leaders across departments, administrative offices, and student-led organizations/groups; (e) develop a campus-wide suicide prevention marketing plan; (f) increase the quantity/quality of culturally competent prevention trainers; (g) increase distribution of suicide prevention materials (e.g. NSPL resources); (h) increase family involvement in suicide prevention; (i) increase the number of students identified by prevention activities; (j) improve the quantity/quality of professional assessments of students; and, (k) increase the number of referrals and successful, sustainable treatment linkages.

To achieve these goals, this project will strategically engage and work with various departments and centers such as Psychology, Social Work, Health, Wellness Centers, and the Joint Military Leadership Center as well as with non-profit community mental health agencies in Year 1. In Year 2, efforts will focus on preparing the campus for the identification of at-risk students by putting protocols and systems in place to effectively respond to at-risk students. The campus crisis response plan will be disseminated, professionals (24) on campus who receive referrals of at-risk students will be trained using the online QPR-T program and a supplemental role play training developed by the Florida GLS grantees, campus and family outreach efforts to increase awareness of the suicide prevention program, NSPL, and existing crisis support services will be started (6000 incoming students and families), and 6 trainers will be trained to deliver the Year 3 gatekeeper training program and mental health and substance abuse seminars. In Year 3, gatekeeper training will be deployed to identify at-risk students (24 trainings, 575 people trained) and an appropriate resource network will have been established to respond to referrals. Prevention services will target specific at-risk populations including (but not limited to): veterans, LGBTQ2-S students, racial and ethnically diverse students, international students, first generation students, student athletes, student substance users, and non-traditional students. These activities should lead to reduction in student suicide attempts and deaths.

The JagConnect program at the University of South Alabama (USA) is designed to address the needs of the more than 15,000 students, faculty, and staff through a multi-level, public health approach to suicide prevention. The program aims to establish a sustainable infrastructure that results in increased access to mental health services for those at risk for suicide by promoting mental health treatment resources and increasing knowledge and awareness about suicide risk factors in students, faculty, and staff. Despite the availability of mental health services at USA, suicide specific approaches that could increase the awareness and utilization of these services amongst those at risk or in crisis is limited in many ways.

First, suicide prevention, mental health services, and help-seeking promotion activities are currently fragmented across multiple offices, resulting in an unclear focus, an unknown impact of these efforts, and very limited information about the mental health needs of the campus. Second, campus mental health providers communicate very little and practices vary widely. In fact, there is no campus protocol to facilitate effective risk assessment, clinical management, and crisis response and there is no system in place to identify, monitor, and evaluate suicide attempts and death by suicide on campus. Third, current educational seminars and information campaigns that promote suicide prevention and mental health help seeking are limited and the current culture among USA students is predominantly negative towards professional mental health help-seeking. Lastly, there has been no systematic attempt to train USA students, faculty, and staff to identify, recognize, and respond to suicidal individuals. To address this need, the JagConnect program will implement a number of programs. A suicide prevention working group will be created to establish crisis protocols, cross-site clinical management strategies, and a monitoring system of suicide attempts and deaths by suicide. A social marketing campaign will be developed to create a culture of help-seeking and promote referrals of students at risk to mental health treatments. Educational seminars will be designed to increase knowledge, awareness, and self-efficacy for suicide prevention. Lastly, QPR gatekeeper trainings will help to increase the recognition and referrals of students in distress. Within these activities, three subpopulations of students will receive focused attention: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender individuals, veterans, and gun owners. Each activity will be rigorously monitored for effectiveness and will be modified as needed to suit our campus. By increasing awareness and access to mental health treatment resources on and off campus through multiple activities, our impacts will be broad enough to deter any future suicide attempts or deaths on our campus.   

The University of San Diego Suicide Prevention Grant will provide a comprehensive array of initiatives to mitigate the risk of suicide and to promote help-seeking behavior. Through enhanced collaborations, trainings and other educational interventions the University of San Diego plans: to 1) increase the awareness of mental health concerns, suicide risk and protective factors, 2) enhance help seeking behavior, and 3) create environmental change that promotes the overall health and wellness of the USD community. Efforts will be aimed at the entire USD community, with targeted at-risk populations being male students, armed service veterans and affiliates, ethnic minority students, international students, and the LGBT student community.This project’s training component will emphasize the role of gatekeepers, or those who regularly come into contact with individuals in distress. Faculty, staff, peer educators, RAs, and other student leaders will engage in gatekeeper trainings to learn how to recognize, approach, and refer students at risk for suicide.This projects educational outreach efforts will include mental health awareness campaign materials, public service announcements, webpage development, the use of social media, and videos. In an effort to fully engage the community USD will leverage student involvement through peer led educational initiatives.Finally, USD will increase collaborations with local and national mental health services, ensure greater visibility of the Up to Us mental health crisis hotline and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and increase mental health screenings opportunities for the USD community.

The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a four year public university, founded in 1876 and located in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The university serves student 13,914 students, from Iowa, other U.S states and several countries. UNI is seeking funding to implement the Building Capacity and Culture of Care at UNI, a capacity building program aimed at suicide prevention and awareness for UNI’s increasingly diverse campus population. Understanding that a large number of our students fall within high risk suicide groups, and having several recent suicides on our campus, the urgency to respond to this growing for suicide prevention awareness an education cannot be underestimated. This program will result in an increase in the institutions capacity to be sustained beyond the duration of the program.

To achieve this, UNI proposes to

1. Build collaborations by developing a networking infrastructure with campus and community partners to deliver the message of shared responsibility in suicide prevention,
2. Increase the training available to students, faculty and staff, develop and increase educational seminars and availability of information materials for the campus community,
3. Foster an environment of help seeking by raising awareness to reduce the negative attitudes and perceptions towards help-seeking for mental health and substance abuse disorders while encouraging and educating on help-seeking behavior, and
4. Increase awareness on help resources such as the National Suicide Prevention lifeline to both students and their families.

UNI’s capacity building effort will create a structured and fluid institutional suicide prevention and crisis response plan with effective suicide and postvention protocols, provide training to student services staff, faculty, students and general staff, and create and outreach efforts, including culturally and linguistically targeted resources to reach a minimum 7,000 students, families, staff and faculty.

College and university campuses are critical for developing young people in today’s society. Students coming to college at this time bring greater levels of emotional problems than five years ago and their emotional problems have grown more severe. Students are experiencing increased pressure to achieve and often have additional burdens interpersonally and financially. Depression and anxiety among students is more apparent than in the past. Minority populations are not exempt. African American and Latino young people are also suffering with depression and anxiety and are considering suicide are at a greater rate than ever before. Students who do not have effective strategies for managing increasing pressures of life may decide suicide is their only option. Research shows these students often do not seek treatment. College and universityprofessionals have a responsibility to help college students identify and accesses resources to overcome what may appear to them-as insurmountable obstacles to moving effectively into adulthood. Identifying and assisting students who are depressed and considering suicide is key for colleges and universities. Developing individuals into effective contributing members of society with a wide variety of talents and ideas is the goal of suicide intervention. The QPR Gatekeeper approach works to develop students and staff by enhancing participants’ ability to be more effective and proactive with persons in crisis. Participants are able to identify key indicators of suicide intention and develop skills to help a person receive care they need in a crisis. Leaders will develop more in depth skills to lead others in learning the process. Staff and faculty who are prepared effectively for a crisis situation can guide a student to receive assistance in overcoming crisis. Students themselves can learn how to help a friend. Gatekeepertraining provides participants in a two hour format with warning signs and ways to assist a person who may be contemplating suicide. The ASIST Program for suicide intervention and prevention developed by LivingWorks, will add to the participants’ knowledge and skill by directly addressing attitudes held considering suicide. LivingWorks pioneered inclusion of an attitudes component for participants to evaluate their own beliefs and attitudes about suicide. The extended educational approach is targeted towards staff, faculty, students in counseling and psychology and students who may lead two hour workshops in the future. Campus wide programming in the area of suicide prevention and intervention is a key approach to increasing knowledge and skill. Preventing suicide is the goal. Learning how to identify someone who is considering suicide and listening to the person are skills that will be developed. Through a campus wide network a safety net for students in crisis, can be built. Colleges’ and universities’ attention to the mental health of students encourages successful matriculation for all students.

The American Indian Suicide Prevention Program at the University of North Dakota (UND) is a two-phase program that will develop a circle of care model for suicide prevention. The first phase will be development and integration at UND and the second phase will be the application of the model to tribal colleges in North Dakota. The circle of care model provides linkages to and from the reservations and UND, to exchange information with the suicide prevention coordinators and IHS mental health contacts. The tribal contacts will inform the campus crisis team of traumatic events that occur on the reservations to activate campus support services. The crisis team reciprocates by relaying traumatic campus incidents to the reservations so families can provide support. A steering committee, consisting of the American Indian Crisis Team, project staff, UND officials, tribal liaisons, tribal college representatives and AI students from each ND reservation (and two at-large) will assist in the-development and future modifications, The model at UND will include education and training for: the crisis team members, interested community members, and American Indian students. The curriculum includes: identifying signs of suicidal behavior, developing skills to de-escalate situations, learning stress-reduction techniques and problem solving skills, and acquiring knowledge of resources and support services, such as counseling. The trainings, for AI students, will be incorporated into the currently-offered workshops and seminars about school success and student retention. The training material is from the LaFromboise Adolescent Life Skills Curriculum and will be adapted to be culturally appropriate for tribes in North Dakota. In addition, Mental Health First Aid training will be implemented in the campus community in year one of the project (and at tribal colleges in year two and year three). The Mental Health First Aid training was created specifically for the non-mental health professional to: recognize signs of mental health problems, de-escalate situations, assess risk for suicide, and help individuals’ access resources while receiving emotional support. Personnel from the Center for Rural Health at UND will facilitate the training program. The University will offer unique cultural components to students who are in need of support by: creating a sweatlodge, offering ceremonial activities on campus, and providing access to a spiritual advisor as part of the circle of services. The project will beevaluated from three primary sources of data: interviews with the program staff, self-report data from students who have contact with the program, and demographic records. The intention of this evaluative process is to provide data that will facilitate improvement and revisions to the program by assessing how the program’s processes work, and the impact it is having upon the students. The data collection and analysis of findings will be on-going throughout the years, and integrated within the standard functioning of the program. This formative evaluation will detail the refine the model, and make it applicable to other campuses.