Jamie Stephens (Recreation and Wellness) received new funding from UNCG Student Affairs for the project “Implementing a multi-tier suicide prevention program at UNC Greensboro.” George Sill is co-principal investigator on the project.
Stress, mental illness, and suicidality pose significant threats to the well-being and success of college students. The 2019 Center for Collegiate Mental Health Annual report revealed 2,078,181 unique students had sought mental health treatment through university counseling centers with anxiety and depression being the top two concerns. Along with the increase in the number of college students with mental health problems in recent years, there is the increasing prevalence of having a major mental illness as being a primary risk factor for suicide among emerging adults. Depression and anxiety disorders represent the most prevalent disorders that students experience on campus, while also posing a barrier to their success academically.
In order to address these challenges, UNCG has taken a proactive approach through its Culture of Care initiative coordinated through the Dean of Students Office. Recognizing that faculty, staff, and students all have an important role to play as we strive to meet the mental health needs of our community, the Culture of Care initiative focuses on equipping members of our campus community with the skills needed to contribute to this Culture of Care.
Through the grant, UNCG seeks to (1) increase engagement of faculty, staff, and students in training and capacity to recognize students in distress; (2) provide a timely, impactful response to students who are identified to be in distress; and (3) integrate a proactive mental health response component into the trainings for targeted student populations (i.e., SAFE Zone, Green Zone, Sexual Violence training, Greek Leadership/Advisor Training, Spartans in Dialogue, etc.).
The University plans to build upon an established foundation of suicide prevention efforts by adding an enhanced level of mental health and suicide prevention training. Both population-focused training and QPR will provide evidence-based expansions to our existing training. The QPR training is a nationally recognized, evidence-based Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training at the heart of this expansion.
