Pensacola State College

Pensacola State College Campus Suicide Prevention project will serve Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in NW Florida. The college’s diverse population of students, faculty and staff, will benefit from a collaboration with Lakeview Center, Inc., resulting in the development and delivery of education and awareness materials, and also providing a referral mechanism for at-risk individuals to receive quality treatment services.

The overarching goal of the proposed project is to prevent suicide of students attending Pensacola State College, and their family members. Target populations include, but are not limited to, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender individuals, American Indian/Alaska Natives, military family members and veterans. The objectives of this project are to:

1. Increase the amount of training to Pensacola State College students, faculty and staff on suicide prevention and mental health promotion;
2. Increase collaboration among Pensacola State College, awarding winning Baptist Health Care’s behavioral institute, Lakeview Center, Inc. and other appropriate community partners to deliver the message that suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility;
3. Increase the number of educational seminars and informational materials for Pensacola State College students, faculty, staff, and family members on suicide prevention, identification, and reduction of risk factors such as depression and substances use/abuse;
4. Increase help-seeking among Pensacola State College students and reduce stigma for seeking care for mental and behavioral health issues among students; and
5. Increase the promotion of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

This project will allow the college to develop and implement an infrastructure that will promote education and awareness, incorporating the philosophy that it is everyone’s responsibility to be knowledgeable on suicide awareness, know the signs-and-symptoms, strategies to dealing with and know the resources to use, if an occurrence occurs.

It is estimated that a minimum of 1000 students, faculty and staff and family members will receive formal education/training annually on suicide prevention and mental health issues, through modules for classroom-based instruction, a series of seminars/workshops, and guest speakers. Many more individuals will be exposed to and gain awareness through print materials, National Prevention Day activities, and social media.