San Jose State University

This comprehensive project is designed to improve the mental health for all San Jose State University students using the public health approach. A caring, connected, and informed SJSU, filled with 850 Gatekeepers, 7,000 mental health informed individuals, 250 peer-lead outreach activities, and 100 community partners, will be created to increase service capacity, early identification, and treatment engagement for all students by August 2021. The objectives for this project are developed based on the key unmet mental health needs for SJSU students: Underdeveloped network infrastructure and low service capacity, low numbers of trained gatekeepers to effectively respond to students with mental health needs or in crisis, lack of early identification mechanisms for mental health and substance use disorders, and low help-seeking and treatment engagement rates. We plan to meet these needs by implementing eight evidence-supported activities:

1. Strengthening the current network infrastructure and increasing service capacity,
2. Increasing numbers of trained gatekeepers on campus,
3. Providing mental health and substance use disorder screenings,
4. Increasing SJSU CAPS outreach activities through peer programs,
5. Promoting linkage to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline,
6. Hiring a Community Mental Health Coordinator (CMHC),
7. Assessing and systematically improving SJSU’s suicide prevention and intervention efforts using JED Campus program (an approach and an SPRC/Suicide Prevention Resource Center Best Practice Registry program), and
8. Increasing student engagement in activities for improving wellness, reducing suicide, and reducing mental health and substance use disorders through mini-grants.

We will strive for culturally responsive and inclusive practices in all aspects of our project and project activities. We will also use data-driven analyses to identify service and outcome disparities and areas of improvements for all project activities. Finally, we aim at creating sustainable and systematic changes through building partnership and community through collaborative and coordinated efforts.