Keene State College

The KSC suicide prevention project is a comprehensive, multi-level program designed to educate the college community about suicide and how to respond to someone who is suicidal, to reduce the stigma of counseling, to coordinate prevention and response efforts with the town and state organizations, and to intervene with at-risk students to promote their safety and well-being.

The educational component is multifaceted and includes targeted gatekeeper training, educational seminars, and development of a variety of materials including information about suicide and resources, postvention materials, information for parents, and stigma reduction materials such as stress balls, posters, bookmarks, etc. Educational seminars may be coordinated with outside agencies such as NAMI and include seminars by past and present students about their mental health challenges and triumphs and large group talks on overcoming depression/suicidal thinking and/or happiness.

Response to at-risk students is also multifaceted. It includes working with the local mental health agency to coordinate the assessment of high risk individuals and coordinate treatment upon release and developing policies and procedures for mandated safety sessions. At risk students are defined as those who are actively suicidal, i.e., have either made a suicide attempt or are overtly threatening suicide and students who have been hospitalized or held in protective custody because of alcohol poisoning.