University at Buffalo
The University at Buffalo seeks to address suicidal and other harmful behaviors through a comprehensive prevention approach. Project UB WELL ((University at Buffalo WellnessEnhanced Living and Learning) involves a wide range of campus and community resources and constituencies, such as faculty, staff, students, parents, and local mental health services to foster an environment where self-care, connectedness, and knowledge of resources are valued and readily accessed or implemented. Through funding from this grant a variety of stakeholders will be trained in QPR in order to identify persons at risk and in need of treatment. Training of nonclinician “gatekeepers” will convey the message that the entire community is charged with helping other individuals within it. The Inside-Out educational programs aim to normalize experiences of emotional distress, promote and support protective factors, and make students active participants in creating a public awareness campaign by encouraging them to use art, theatre, dance, writing, visual media, and class discussion to engage in dialogue and expression related to emotional wellness. The expertise of local psychiatric emergency personnel in treating acutely suicidal individuals will be shared with campus psychologists, social workers, health educators, and healthcare providers via developing curricula and in vivo training. The collaboration also involves using hospital data to identify the student groups who are at risk for suicidal behavior and other mental illnesses to inform public awareness campaigns and clinical interventions on campus and to develop protocols for a more coordinated response between campus and the local community. All of the new initiatives will be optimized by utilizing technology and media that is in keeping with how students typically access information.