Campus Connect: A Suicide Prevention Training for Gatekeepers

2007

(For resources, this is the publication date. For programs, this is the date posted.)

Information

Program/Practice
Syracuse University

Train-the-trainer workshop $4,500.

Fee includes: six-hour train-the-trainer session, training manual for each participant, consultation prior to and following the training, and travel costs.

Contacts

Cory Wallack, Ph.D. or
Susan Pasco, LCSW-R
Syracuse University Counseling Center
200 Walnut Place
Syracuse, NY 13244-2480
Voice: 315-443-4715
Fax: 315-443-4276
Email (Wallack): cwallack@syr.edu
Email (Pasco): sdpasco@syr.edu

Developed by the Syracuse University Counseling Center, Campus Connect is a gatekeeper training program for college and university faculty, staff, and students. The experientially based training is designed to enhance participant’s knowledge, awareness, and skills concerning college student suicide. Specifically, Campus Connect aims to increase participant’s knowledge about suicide statistics, risk and protective factors, warning signs, and referral resources; to increase empathic listening skills, communication skills, and the ability to ask individuals if they are thinking about suicide; and to increase self-awareness concerning the potential emotional reactions gatekeepers may experience when interacting with students in crisis.

Campus Connect is highly interactive, with gatekeepers participating in multiple exercises throughout the training to increase both their skills and awareness concerning the emotional intensity of responding to suicidal college students. The two-and half hour training culminates with a role play, in which gatekeepers are given the opportunity to practice the skills they are taught during the course of the training.

Program Objectives

After training, participants will have

  1. Increased knowledge of suicide warning signs and referral points for students at risk for suicide.
  2. Increased skills to respond to college students at-risk for suicide.
  3. Increased self-efficacy regarding their ability to respond to a student at-risk for suicide.

Implementation Essentials

  • Completion of the Campus Connect readiness checklist to ensure that the campus is adequately prepared for program implementation. (Although not an implementation essential, a Framework for Developing Institutional Protocols for the Acutely Distressed or Suicidal College Student, developed by the Jed Foundation, may be useful.)
  • Training conducted by qualified Campus Connect trainer.

2012 NSSP Objectives Addressed: 

Objective 7.1: Provide training on suicide prevention to community groups that have a role in the prevention of suicide and related behaviors.