Connecticut College

Suicide is a major public health problem and has become an important topic on college campuses today. The purpose of the Connecticut College Campus Suicide Prevention grant proposal is to enhance services for students with mental and behavioral health problems by providing a comprehensive array of services within the campus community, using a public health approach, to enhance the ability to identify and assess students at risk and to raise the skill level of the various campus helpers to make appropriate referrals of students whose behavior indicates they are at risk for mental and behavioral health problems, including suicide. This will be achieved by developing training programs for students and campus personnel, by enhancing the existing campus networking infrastructure, by creating campus-wide policies and procedures to address campus crises including suicide, by providing psychosocial education in the form of seminars, by distributing materials to the college community and to families, and by creating links to community resources and suicide hotlines. Much of the focus will be on identification and referral of students with mental and behavioral health issues, including affective disorders, substance abuse disorders, and suicide.

Thus, the proposed Connecticut College suicide prevention project will utilize handing to implement an education/public health approach to suicide prevention by promoting enhanced knowledge and awareness of suicide prevention throughout the campus and by enhancing and expanding existing networking infrastructure of campus support services for students.