Vermont – Center for Health and Learning

The Center for Health and Learning and the Vermont Department of Mental Health are partnering to strengthen and expand youth suicide prevention and intervention in Vermont through collaboration between multiple agencies and organizations. There are six major areas of focus:

1. Building infrastructure in Vermont for youth suicide prevent ion by engaging the Vermont Youth Suicide Prevention Coalition (VYSPC) in six meetings per year and writing a multi-year plan.

2. Development of a statewide public information campaign aimed at normalizing help seeking behavior for mental health issues, referring the public to resources (e.g., 2-1-1 line, local and web-based resources and including production of brochures, posters and media placements for targeted audiences) and collaboration with the United Ways of Vermont to promote the use of the 2-1-1 information line for suicide prevention.

3. Development of the Umatter for Schools Training based on the Maine Model. This includes four components: a) Gatekeeper Training b) Protocols Development c) Training of Trainers for those delivering the Lifelines student lessons d) Staff and Parent Awareness programs.

4. Gatekeeper training based on the Connect model developed by NAMI NH for four major audiences: a) Primary Care Providers b) Law Enforcement c) Youth Serving Professionals (AHS related), Mental Health and Substance Abuse Professionals, Juvenile Justice, Foster Care, Social Workers, community-based professionals, and d) Emergency Medical Care Providers. The latter two will be a Training of Trainers where participants will be asked to go back to their settings and conduct awareness-raising sessions.

5. Intensive community-based intervention by collaborating with the VT Department of Health on identifying two communities engaged in implementing the Strategic Prevention Framework for Substance Abuse prevention and implementing the New Hampshire Connect model.

6. Working with Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP) at the University of Vermont to implement targeted interventions aimed at college-age students.