Humboldt State University

“HSU CAMPUS CONNECT SUPPORT NETWORK” or the “HSU SUPPORT NET” builds essential capacity and infrastructure to expand wellness promotion and help-seeking of all students at Humboldt State University (HSU), while providing targeted support for Latina youth, American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), LGBT students, and student veterans and dependents, serving 8500 individuals annually, and 20,000 throughout the lifetime of the project. HSU SUPPORT NETWORK includes these goals and related strategies/interventions:

1) develop training materials that can be added to Campus Connect, QPR, Mental Health First Aid, or any gatekeeper training program that helps to prepare campus stakeholders across constituencies to respond following a campus suicide in a way that reduces the risk of contagion;
2) build essential capacity among our health and wellness staff in the area of suicide prevention, including the ability to deliver “Campus Connect” gatekeeper suicide prevention trainings along with a brief 15-20 minute postvention addition in campus-wide trainings – it is expected this will increase the number of people in the mental health and related workforce trained in mental health-related practices/activities as a result of the grant;
3) build awareness of issues affecting highly vulnerable populations and capacity among our health and wellness staff to deliver campus-wide intergroup dialogue trainings that reduce negative attitudes towards seeking care for mental and substance abuse disorders and encourage a sense of belonging with attention to intersecting identities including race, gender identity, sexual orientation, veteran-status, and disability-status;
4) with the help of a Prevention Specialist build essential capacity across campus through ongoing training of faculty, staff, residence hall advisors, and student leaders, using the Campus Connect model, in the identification of vulnerable students, including those experiencing substance abuse and mental health problems, and which promotes linkage to on-campus resources – it is expected this will increase the number of individuals who have received training in prevention or mental health promotion;
5) increase direct outreach to identified vulnerable students, including those experiencing substance abuse and mental health problems;
6) increase awareness of services, warning signs, and educate campus about referral techniques to on-campus services and promote linkage to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Trevor Project through campus-wide messaging;
7) reduce the use of tobacco on HSU’s campus through campus-wide psychoeducation and social-norms marketing;
8) create a network infrastructure to link HSU with health care providers from the broader community, and improve connections between existing services on campus – it is expected that this effort will increase the number of organizations collaborating/coordinating/sharing resources with other organizations as a result of the grant;
9) disseminate developed suicide postvention training materials and the results of our evaluation of programs for public use by other institutions of higher education to aid others in further building capacity and increasing prevention.