Grantee Categories: Garrett Lee Smith Campus

TIGER COMMUNITY’S PATHWAY TO HELP, HOPE AND SUCCESS Fort Hays State University’s (FHSU) TIGER COMMUNITY’S PATHWAY TO HELP, HOPE AND SUCCESS will ensure our students, faculty, and staff have adequate information, resources, and access to services which allow them to maintain overall wellness in their lives. This will positively impact our students’ mental health, and therefore increase our students’ retention, persistence, and success during their university career and beyond. With 15,100 total students served by approximately 1,000 faculty and staff, the FHSU community is extremely diverse, especially in comparison to our peer institutions. This project targets all FHSU students, faculty and staff. The most recent available demographic data indicates that 60.4% of FHSU students are female and 39.5% are male with the average age being 27.1. 51% of the undergraduate student residence is in-state, and 48% is out-of-state. The percent of American Indian students is less than 1% with other categories as follows: Asian 26%, Black or African American 4%, Hispanic/Latino 7%, White 59%, two or more races 2%, and racial/ethnicity unknown 1%. FHSU has seen a 77.7% increase in its Hispanic student enrollment over the past five years. There are currently 134 Chinese students on the FHSU campus. According to Collegeportraits.org, 28% of FHSU undergraduates are low-income with 378 students receiving veteran benefits.

Goals:

1. Increase coordination of services on campus and the collaboration between FHSU and its community partners to enhance identification, treatment and management of students experiencing mental health distress or crisis.

2. Increase the FHSU campus community’s ability to recognize, manage and prevent suicide and create a campus environment that promotes good mental health and substance abuse practices.

3. Expand FHSU’s current suicide prevention activities to reach a larger number of students.

4. Increase the commitment to the emotional well-being of FHSU students.

Brief Objectives: FHSU will begin building a campus and community network through the signing of memorandums of understandings with campus and community resources. We will hire a case manager to assist with student needs. FHSU will implement online as well as face to face gatekeeper suicide prevention and substance abuse trainings for university and community constituents. Kelly Center (Counseling Center) data indicates the top 5 reasons students seek services are: depression; anxiety; relationships; stress; and substance abuse. The Kelly Center currently reaches approximately 3000 students a year. Implementation of grant objectives will allow us to increase this number to 4,000-5,000 using online and face to face training outreach.

The purpose of the East Central University (ECU) Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Program is to facilitate a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention on the ECU campus in Ada, OK. This program will increase collaboration of campus partners in the area of suicide prevention, increase suicide prevention/intervention trainings, increase the number of materials provided on campus related to suicide prevention, decrease stigma around mental health and help seeking, and increase promotion of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The program will also serve as a connection resource to better link students and families experiencing mental health or behavioral health issues to appropriate services. The entire University student population will be targeted with the proposed program. This includes approximately 4,500 students attending ECU. Within this population, a number of vulnerable groups will be served including veterans, Native Americans, and LGBT individuals. ECU is a public 4-year regional university and is located within the City of Ada, which has a population of approximately 17,303 and is the county seat of Pontotoc County with 38,194 residents. In addition, Ada is the seat of government of the Chickasaw Nation, and as much as 13% of the population within the targeted campus is Native American. Strategies and goals to be accomplished by this program include the following.

Goal 1: Increase campus infrastructure and collaboration around suicide prevention. Objective 1A: Develop a Project Leadership Team consisting of a minimum of 10 campus partners by 12/31/2017. Objective 1B: Maintain 10 Project Leadership Team members throughout grant period (9/30/2020). Objective 1C: Facilitate Project Leadership Team members on a minimum of a quarterly basis through grant period (9/30/2020). Objective 1D: Via Project Leadership Team, develop a crisis response plan and revise as needed by 3/31/2018.

Goal 2: Increase availability of suicide prevention and intervention training and materials on campus. Objective 2A: Provide at least 450 students & employees gatekeeper training programs by 9/30/2020 resulting in a ratio of 1 gatekeeper for every 10 students. Objective 2B: Increase peer helping via provision of Student Support Network to at least 30 students by 9/30/2020. Objective 2C: Provide 100% of students and employees with suicide prevention materials and other information by 9/30/2020.

Goal 3: Decrease student rates of suicide risk factors. Objective 3A: Decrease number of students reporting substance misuse by 5% by 9/30/2020. Objective 3B: Decrease number of students reporting feelings of sadness by 5% by 9/30/2020. Objective 3C: Decrease number of students reporting feelings of overwhelming anxiety by 5% by 9/30/2020. Objective 3D: Reduce access to means by hosting at least 1 prescription drug take back event on an annual basis (9/30/2018, 9/30/2019, 9/30/2020). Objective 3E: Reduce access to means by providing safe storage information on prescription drugs and firearms to 100% of students and employees by 9/30/2020.

Suicide Education and Awareness at ECU (SEA@ECU) will focus on reducing incidences of suicide and attempted
suicide by enhancing the mental health and substance use services available to all members of the 29,000-plus student
body at East Carolina University (ECU), the third-largest campus (by enrollment) in the University of North Carolina
System (ECU Instructional, Planning, and Assessment, n.d.).

The onset of mental health disorders often occurs when individuals are in their mid-teens to mid-twenties, the age of college preparation and attendance. The NSDUH 2016
survey found nearly 22 percent of college students experience mental illness or serious mental illness in the past year.
Further, over 2 million students had serious thoughts of suicide; 725,000 had made a suicide plan; 484,000 attempted
suicide, and over 300,000 either received medical care or stayed at least overnight in the hospital because of a suicide
attempt. The use of alcohol and other drugs by college students, though often dismissed or downplayed as behavior
“typical” of that group, has been strongly tied suicidal ideation in college students (Park Lee, Lipari, Hedden, Kroutil,
& Porter, 2017). Within this broad population of college students, three subpopulations are particularly susceptible to
mental health and/or substance use disorders: veterans (and their dependents), members of the LGBTQ community,
and those in recovery from substance use. SEA@ECU will coordinate and enhance the university’s current prevention
and treatment programming to prevent death and injury due to suicide or suicide attempts; improve the identification and
treatment of at-risk students; provide education and treatment services to students with mental health and substance
use disorders; promote student help-seeking behaviors; reduce negative public attitudes toward individuals with mental
health and substance use disorders; and generally improve mental health services for all students.

The project will increase linkage among ECU behavioral healthcare providers to better identify and serve students’ behavioral healthcare
needs; to provide students, staff, and faculty with education, resources, and training to improve their knowledge and
skills when asking questions that might prevent student suicide and to respond effectively to students in crisis and/or
with mental health and substance use disorders. The project will achieve these goals by increasing outreach services;
administering voluntary mental health and substance use disorder screenings and assessments; educating students,
families, faculty, staff, and individuals about mental health and substance use disorders; and by providing evidencebased
prevention and treatment services to students with mental health and substance use disorders. SEA@ECU will
impact every member of each ECU freshman class—an estimated 23,000 students per year, and 69,000 across the
three-year span of the project. It will also provide prevention services, including one-on-one professional counseling, free
of charge, to as many as 760 students in all: 180 in the project’s first year, and 290 each in the grant’s penultimate and
final years.

The DMACC Mental Health Project will be overseen by the counseling department at the Des Moines Area Community College. This initiative will launch with a comprehensive Needs Assessment, followed by specific initiatives designed to fulfill the unmet needs of our students. We will focus on building capacity and infrastructure in order to better meet the mental health and counseling need of our students both now and into the future. Population to be served: Faculty, staff and students at the DMACC Ankeny and Urban campuses. We will serve 3,000 individuals annually; 9,000 over the life of the grant Student demographics include the following: Male/Female: 46% Male / 54% Female Minority: 24% (primarily Black, Hispanic, and Asian) First Generation Student: 62% Ages: 63% aged 18-22; 27% aged 23-35; 9% age 36-55 Pell Eligible: 31% Single Parents: 9% Limited English Speaking: 28% Veterans: 330 These two campuses also serve over 100 international students and a significant number of recent immigrants and refugees.

Goal #1: Increase DMACC counselors’ capacity to serve students by strengthening and expanding DMACC’s network infrastructure linking the institution with community mental health and substance use disorder providers.

Goal #2: Increase number of DMACC students who are offered services and support by training faculty and staff to identify signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use disorders, to effectively reach out to the students of concern, and to make appropriate referrals.

Goal #3: Decrease stigma and increase help-seeking behaviors amongst DMACC students by implementing trainings to educate students about mental health and substance use disorders and promoting awareness of these issues and available resources.

Goal #4: Proactively identify and offer services to students before they develop symptoms that significantly disrupt their academic performance or constitute a crisis. Goal #5: Improve mental health and substance use related clinical services offered to students on campus.

The Cleveland State University Building Partners for Suicide Prevention project will build on campus and community partnerships to strengthen suicide prevention infrastructure. The project will expand gatekeeper training, promote awareness to decrease stigmatization of mental health concerns, engage student leaders, improve communication between providers, and provide follow up care for high risk students. The project focuses on suicide prevention for CSU students and will attend especially to outreach and prevention with two higher-risk groups: LGBTQ+ students and veteran students. In expanding and strengthening the infrastructure, the CSU Building Partners for Suicide Prevention project will meet the following goals: Goal 1: Increase capacity to deliver campus wide trainings that will increase the ability for students/campus members to take appropriate action when there is a mental health crisis. Objective: Train 3700 students and staff. Goal 2: Decrease stigma and encourage help-seeking behaviors and screenings. Objective: Reach 2900 students and staff with de-stigmatizing campaign and screenings. Goal 3: Increase the capacity of the Counseling Center to provide clinical case management and post-hospitalization follow-up care. Objective: Provide direct service for 200 high risk students. Goal 4: Create and maintain system for tracking student suicidal behavior, identifying trends, and measuring the success of suicide prevention efforts.

“Carleton College GLS Campus Suicide Prevention Initiative: Everyone’s Responsibility” leverages existing campus services and community networks to ensure that suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility. This ambitious program will serve all 2000 students each year, with focus on particular vulnerable populations, including LGBT students and those experiencing substance abuse and mental health problems; provide training for 200 faculty and 100 gatekeeper staff; and develop yearly communications and programs for parents. The Carleton project incorporates goals and objectives from the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) and aims to implement a comprehensive and data-driven approach to suicide prevention, with the vision that one death is too many. Carleton project goals include:

(1) adoption of zero suicides as an aspirational goal on the Carleton College campus; and
(2) promotion of positive mental well-being as the norm on the Carleton College campus.

Carleton will facilitate a comprehensive public health approach to preventing suicide, promoting prevention as a core component of all campus health care services. The project will build essential capacity and infrastructure to support expanded efforts to promote wellness and help-seeking of all students. Demographics of target audiences include students who identify as minority (24.4%), first-generation (11.1%), and GLBT (12.1%, plus 12.2% unsure/other), and those experiencing two or more stressors in the past 12 months (41.9%). As Carleton promotes its primary goal of zero suicides, it will achieve ambitious, measurable outcomes related to four objectives:

(1) developing collaborative responsibility among campus and community partners to increase referral capacity, especially for high-risk students, and deliver the message that suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility
(2) providing educational seminars and informational materials for students, faculty, staff, and family members;
(3)providing training to students, faculty, and staff on suicide prevention;
(4) increasing help-seeking among students, and reducing negative attitudes for seeking care for mental and substance use disorders among students.

The primary goal will be complemented by a second goal of promoting mental well-being, which will include specific outcomes related to three objectives:

(1) training students, faculty, and staff about protective factors and mental health promotion behaviors;
(2) utilizing new and existing educational seminars and materials for students, faculty, staff, and family members regarding protective factors and mental health promotion behaviors;
(3) providing sustained messaging regarding mental health awareness.

A distinctive feature of the Carleton GLS suicide prevention project will be the leadership role of the new Office of Health Promotion (OHP), whose mission is to create the healthiest possible campus environment in which all students are able to flourish. OHP strategies include advocating for health-supporting environments guided by cultural inclusion, respect, equality and equity; focusing on population-level outcomes for the prevention of high-risk behaviors; and promoting overall well-being through the use of initiatives that are evidence based and/or theory informed. The OHP also coordinates a SAMHSA “Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success” (PFS) grant to reduce drinking and marijuana abuse on the Carleton campus. The Carleton GLS Suicide Prevention project will coordinate with and support the strategies of the PFS grant.

To meet the needs of the campus community, Boise State is seeking the GLS grant to help fill current education,
resource, and infrastructure gaps that exist for students that may be struggling with mental health and/or substance
use. Boise State is committed to implementing the Caring Broncos Project, a comprehensive suicide prevention
program to enhance efforts already initiated to offer education, resources, early intervention, and a continuum of
care for students. From fall 2012 to fall 2017, Boise State University had ten students complete suicide. In January
2018, two Boise State students completed suicide. Students, faculty, and staff at Boise State University are severely
impacted by each completed suicide; often, the campus community is left with feelings of sadness, frustration, unease,
and uncertainty due to limited awareness and access to support resources for mental health and substance abuse.
Current efforts at Boise State are disjointed and lacking coordination: there is no central office currently maintaining
primary responsibility for training and education, there are gaps in campus-wide policies and protocols, and limited
collaboration between area hospitals and other community agencies. The project name centers on one of Boise State’s
Shared Values of Caring. The purpose and use of grant funds will be to develop comprehensive, coordinated, and
sustainable suicide prevention efforts on the Boise State campus. To achieve this purpose, Boise State has established
four primary goals:

(1) Implement evidence-based programming to increase campus awareness of warning signs and
high-risk behavior associated with suicide and mental illness.

(2) Decrease the number of students seriously considering suicide by implementing a comprehensive wellness model that promotes help-seeking amongst diverse student
groups.

(3) Increase the University’s capacity to provide students a continuum of care post-hospitalization to reduce the
number of acute crises.

(4) Increase outreach efforts to students at high-risk with mental health and substance abuse
needs.

Measurable objectives for this program include increased education, training, and outreach for the campus
community, increased utilization of mental health and substance use screening tools, a more streamlined approach to
identifying and responding to mental health concerns, and increased collaboration with community providers to help
support a continuum of care for Boise State students. These strategic efforts will strengthen infrastructure, community
relationships, promotion of wellness and help-seeking, and outreach to vulnerable student populations, with a focus of
student veterans. Boise State is committed to implementing a comprehensive prevention program to help meet student
needs. Estimated number of people to be served in year one of the project – 700, year two – 3300, and year three – 4000.
Total number of people served: 8,000.