Community College of Aurora

Through the Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention project, Community College of Aurora (CCA) will increase
counseling services in order to better meet the mental health needs of CCA students, and significantly expand training
to enhance the ability of CCA students, faculty, adjunct instructors, and student support staff to recognize, screen
and respond effectively to students with mental health and substance use disorders using the Zero Suicide model
as a framework.

Project Name: Community College of Aurora Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Project
Population Served: Community College of Aurora students: 27% of whom are Hispanic/Latino, 21% Black/African
American, 8% Asian/Pacific Islander, 2% American Indian and 36% White/Non-Hispanic; 63% first generation college
students, over 50% low-income; average age 25; most common presenting issues: life stressors, depression, trauma,
anxiety, family and relationship challenges, grief, substance abuse and academics; six attempted suicides and one
completion in 2017

Strategies/Interventions: Using the Zero Suicide model as framework and building on a long-time
partnership with the Aurora Mental Health Center, CCA will significantly expand and enhance:

• On-campus professional counseling services for students;
• The college’s network infrastructure of trained behavioral healthcare providers;
• Suicide awareness, prevention and response training for students through new online courses;
• Training for full-time faculty, adjunct instructors and Student Affairs staff on mental and substance abuse disorders and suicide prevention and treatment;
• Implementation of voluntary screenings/assessments using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) by training college CARE Team members and the human resources team.

Project Goals/Objectives: Over the three year project period, CCA will:

• Expand the network infrastructure by 5 annually to 15 total new partners by project end
• Train 750 students
• Train 20 CARE Team and human resources staff members annually on the C-SSRS
• Train 165 faculty, adjuncts and Student Affairs staff annually; 495 total
• Screen/assess 150 students annually using the CSSRS;450 total
• Provide treatment services to 150 students annually; 450 total Total Number Served: Approximately 550 annually; 1715 over three years