California State University – Fullerton

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among college students. While attending college is a protective factor against suicide compared to non-school attending 18-24 year old category, transitioning to a college campus can be an overwhelming experience. California State University, Fullerton is the largest state university among the twenty three California State University campuses, with a rich and diverse student demographic. With 4% of CSUF students participating in the International Education Program, and most CSUF students working at least 10 hours per week, CSUF students are under tremendous amounts of stress. The Campus Suicide Prevention Project at CSUF will focus on establishing a Crisis Response Team and protocol to better assist the campus community to respond to a suicide or suicide attempt. Other goals of the project include enhanced faculty, staff and student training to better recognize signs of at risk students in order to refer for mental health treatment. The project will focus on reducing the stigma to receiving treatment for mental health conditions. This will be accomplished by conducting a social marketing campaign, targeting multicultural and ethnic populations, as these student groups are less likely to seek treatment for mental health conditions. This project will implement a tracking system to better quantify mental health issues of CSUF students so as to prioritize services and programming to address this public health concern.