College of the Muscogee Nation

Served: Rural Non-Reservation American Indian College Students
Methods: Networking, gatekeeper training, seminars, QPR, and YMHFA
Number Served: 375 annually and 1,125 over the project period

The College of the Muscogee Nation seeks to establish an integrated public health approach to suicide prevention, substance abuse prevention, and mental health promotion to detect, prevent, and provide early intervention services to rural non-reservation American Indian youth and emerging adults who reside within the 11-county area of northeastern Oklahoma served by the College of the Muscogee Nation. This system shall develop infrastructure, expand and enhance current programs, and provide the foundation for creating a prevention-prepared campus, promote wellness, encourage student help-seeking behaviors, and increase collaborative partnerships for delivering and sustaining effective, efficient, and culturally appropriate services.

The College of the Muscogee Nation’s(CMN) Defending the Future project shall define the need for services, the gaps between needed and available services, barriers to care, and other problems related to the need to implement suicide prevention and early intervention activities for American Indian students (youth and emerging adults) at risk of or currently experiencing issues that may lead to suicide. The project shall increase the number of individuals and gatekeepers trained to identify, assess, and manage students at risk for suicide within the campus service area. The result will increase early identification, improve the continuity of care, increase utilization of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and further implement the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.

Goal 1: To increase the infrastructure, capacity, effectiveness, and efficiency of suicide prevention services for American Indian students who attend the CMN.

Goal 2: To reduce the prevalence of suicide and suicidal behaviors among the at risk student population at CMN.

Goal 3: To promote systems level change at the tribal college to embrace suicide prevention as a core strategy.