Buffalo State College

Buffalo State Cares will be a comprehensive campus suicide prevention program that builds on Buffalo State College (BSC) current efforts by enhancing campus and community outreach about suicide in order to create a social climate that encourages detection of suicidal ideation/ behavior, promotes referrals to mental health services, and results in increased help-seeking behavior by students. A variety of outreach activities to students and faculty are proposed: a PSA campaign to increase awareness of the National Suicide Prevention LifeLine, a project website, and new informational materials. Outreach to neighborhoods surrounding the campus where students and their families live and work will be undertaken, as well as the creation of innovative and culturally competent online and in-person training for students, faculty, families, and community partners about suicide prevention, using the QPR model as its basis. Special attention will be paid to high-risk groups on campus. Since the clinicians currently conducting this training are also experiencing a high demand for their counseling services, thereby limiting outreach and education efforts, funding for an outreach worker will help alleviate the burden on them, allowing more training to occur. Additionally, Buffalo State Cares will increase collaboration among stakeholders to better support crisis management procedures for students with mental and behavioral health problems. Finally, a symposium will be planned at the end of the funding period to reflect upon program successes, to share information with campus/community partners and SUNY affiliates, and to plan for sustainability. Buffalo State Cares will support SAMHSAs first strategic initiative and the JED Foundations/Suicide Prevention Resource Center Comprehensive Approach to Campus Suicide Prevention.

BSC has undertaken a strategic plan to strengthen the campus community through a focus on caring and civility, which requires students to commit to being responsible for their own and others actions. The Buffalo State Cares suicide prevention program reinforces this concept and will derive benefit from this campus-wide initiative. Various administrators, faculty, and student groups have worked together in developing this proposal to integrate suicide prevention awareness into the campus infrastructure. Commitments have also been received from a wide array of community partners.

Measurements of how many individuals will be served quarterly, annually, and throughout the lifetime of the project will be undertaken for pre/post-interventions, for all educational components of the program, and for all services rendered. Buffalo State College intends to reach approximately 20% of its student population annually, with the program affecting 60% of students by the end of the grant allocation.