New Program Will Address Suicidal and Other Harmful Behaviors

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Division of Student Affairs at the University at Buffalo has been awarded a three-year, $193,793 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to address suicidal and other harmful behaviors through a comprehensive campus-wide approach to the subject.

Only 34 institutions nationwide received Campus Suicide Prevention grants from SAMHSA in 2006.

The program that earned the grant -- Project UB WELL (Wellness Enhanced Living and Learning) -- was developed by Counseling Services and Wellness Education Services, which are part of the Student Wellness Team.

"This is a multifaceted project," said Sherri Darrow, director of Wellness Education and co-director of Project UB WELL with Sharon Mitchell, director of Counseling Services. "We're focusing on suicide prevention, but we're also focusing on wellness."

The central goal of the program is to foster an environment of self-care, connectedness and knowledge on campus that will reduce suicide risk factors, as well as make vulnerable students aware of the support systems that are available to them.

"College can be extremely stressful and some students handle stress better than others," said Dennis R. Black, vice president for student affairs. "Project UB WELL is a creative and proactive approach to creating a healthy campus climate for everyone."

Added Mitchell: "We aspire to create a UB campus where students can identify the effects of their stress, where faculty, staff and the community are skilled in identifying people at risk and where students know where to go if they feel at risk for mental-health problems or are thinking about harming themselves."

As part of Project UB WELL, funding will support QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) suicide-prevention training to various campus and community constituencies, including faculty, staff, students,

parents and local mental-health service workers -- all of whom could become the "gatekeeper" to mental-health assistance for a person at risk of suicide.

QPR training is an educational program that teaches how to recognize a mental-health emergency and to learn how to get the person at risk the appropriate help.

"The training will start with the professionals on the staff of the Student Wellness Team who are experienced working with students in crisis," Darrow said.

She noted that about 35 professionals could be trained as soon as December. These individuals then will teach others from various local organizations to spread QPR suicide-prevention knowledge to both on- and off-campus communities.

Funds also will support an Inside-Out public awareness program. This campaign will involve a series of interactive, psycho-educational programs that will use such creative mediums as poetry, music, art, theater and dialogue to reduce students' social isolation and emotional distress, and get them to be active participants in their wellness.

Projects related to the Inside-Out campaign will showcase student works in the visual, written and performance arts that feature wellness and mental health as a central theme. An art exhibition, theatrical and dance performances, and poetry slams are all in the pipeline, as well as an essay contest centered on the emotional wellness of minority students and students with disabilities.

Project UB WELL will grow more visible on campus as its initiatives continue to gear up, said Darrow. A health-and-wellness film series could launch as soon as next semester.

Organizers plan to seek out the assistance of faculty members for Inside-Out campaign efforts, she added. Volunteers will be needed to serve on panels for projects that require student works to be exhibited or judged, and input will be sought about incentives to promote student participation in the campaign. Faculty members are encouraged to inform students about Inside-Out initiatives in class or include an assignment that incorporates an emotional wellness component.

The grant also will enable UB professional staff -- psychologists, social workers and health educators -- to receive training from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center and psychiatrists from the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP) to identify student groups that are at risk for suicidal behavior and other mental illnesses.

In addition, CPEP will work with UB professionals to learn more about college students who are referred to local hospitals for mental-health reasons through collaborative research and data collection.

"If we can make students aware that help is here and that they need not suffer alone, Project UB WELL will have been a resounding success," said Mitchell.