Purdue University Ft. Wayne

Project COMPASS: COMmunity Partners Against Student Suicide is a comprehensive suicide prevention and health promotion program creating links between all areas of college life from campus to home. Gatekeeper training for campus, families, and faith communities, cultural awareness education, and anti-harassment campaigns are important components in a program that will target LGBTQ, military service members, and racial and ethnic minority students. Campus-wide assessment of the target populations, with particular attention to first-year students, will afford the opportunity to identify vulnerable students and implement early intervention.

Use of existing resources is the foundation of this program. University police has implemented a crisis intervention protocol, the Student Assistance Program provides mental health counseling and referral, the Wellness program provides wellness education, the Office of Institutional Equity provides anti-harassment training. We will develop an infrastructure linking the services with each other and adding resources in the community, involving parents, clergy, and other support persons in our prevention and intervention efforts.

We propose to assess an minimum of 1000 students per semester, train 250 gatekeepers during the life of the grant, and conduct 12 cultural awareness education programs on campus and in the community per year of the life of the grant. Outcome measures include assessment follow-up data, training satisfaction surveys, increased numbers of referrals to University mental health services, and decrease in harassment incidents.