University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

The Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Campus Suicide Prevention Grant will fund five programmatic activities with the over-arching goal of identifying students who are at risk for suicide, and helping them obtain appropriate mental and behavioral health services. The diverse grant activities involve the entire campus community and incorporate a wide range of services and providers. The Gatekeeper Liaison Training Program will develop a formal infrastructure of faculty and staff to liaison with Counseling and Wellness Services (CWS) professionals in a community effort to decrease suicidal behavior. A “train-the-trainer” model will be utilized to extend the responsibility for students’ psychological and physical well being on campus to non-mental health professionals who work with students in their natural environments. The S.U.P.E.R Peer Education Program will develop a cadre of students to provide educational presentations to other students oriented towards “helping a friend”. The Web-based Information Program will expand existing web-based information on suicide prevention as part of a multimodal, multicultural approach to reach students, parents, faculty and staff with information on college student mental health issues, and resources for help. The E-Mail Mental and Behavioral Health Screening Program will target those students who may be reluctant to seek traditional psychological services, but may respond to offers of anonymous assessment and service on the internet. All undergraduate students will be contacted yearly, and offered the opportunity to complete an on-line screening instrument and have either in person, or on-line follow up with a therapist. The Parent Alliance Program will enhance CWS’ relationship with parents of UNC-CH students – through presentations, newsletters, and web based information targeted to parent groups – to better utilize their extensive and unique knowledge of their children’s mental and behavioral health vulnerabilities, and involve them as a first line of contact for their distressed children.