New Mexico State University

New Mexico State University (NMSU) population 18,552 (main campus) is located in Las Cruces, New Mexico (population 95,000). Within the past year, four students ended their life by suicide making the rate 33 per 100,000. New Mexico ranks third in the nation with a suicide rate of 20.4 per 100,000. The NMSU Counseling Center currently provides a two- pronged approach to suicide prevention: individual and group therapy which includes a crisis walk in service and the Crisis Assistance Listening Line (CALL) which is a warm line. The Counseling Center is proposing a more systemic comprehensive approach to include a campus wide gatekeeper training that is culturally sensitive using the Livingworks model of ASIST and safeTalk in which the trainer matches the trainee in terms of certain demographic characteristics such as ethnicity, sexual orientation and military status.

The NMSU Counseling Center proposes to train 30 key staff, faculty and students from various departments such as Ethnic Programs, the Sexual and Gender Diversity Resource Center and the Student Veterans Office in the LivingWorks model of ASIST and safeTalk. These trained individuals will further train 1,000 students using the 2 hour safeTalk model. In addition, the NMSU Counseling Center is proposing that the Crisis Assistance Listening Line is sustained and improved through SAMSHA funding including obtaining accreditation from the American Association of Suicidology thus enabling the CALL to become a part of the larger network of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK.

Outcomes pertaining to the CALL such as number of CALL Responders (those answering the warm line) trained, number of calls received, caller issues, etc., will be tracked using iCarol, a web based program that is specific to call lines. Outcomes specific to the Counseling Center such as ethnic demographics and degree of suicidality will be tracked using Titanium, a web based program specific to university counseling centers. Training evaluations will be used for both the CALL trainings and the LivingWorks trainings.