Friday, April 26, 2024
4/26/2024
Purpose: Our proposal, Implementing a Trauma-Informed Social-Ecological Approach to Campus Suicide Prevention at UNC Charlotte, adopts a public health approach to suicide prevention among 30,000 college students. In response to several campus and regional traumatic events in recent years, the program seeks to build sustainable trauma-focused, resilience-oriented campus suicide prevention policies, programs, and networks. Populations Served: The following groups are served across program components: (1) faculty, staff, and administration; (2) high risk student groups (i.e., international, graduate, and military-affiliated students); (3) students experiencing stress, mental health and/or substance use concerns; (4) police officers, and; (5) a range of Charlotte, NC area community partners (e.g., VA Medical Center, LGBT youth-serving non-profit). Strategies/Interventions: The following programs will be implemented. First, campus healthcare staff will receive advanced training in brief trauma-focused interventions and evidence-based suicide risk assessment and management practices. Second, QPR gatekeeper training will be vigorously expanded to strengthen certified campus trainers and reach key campus stakeholders (e.g., law enforcement, faculty, military-affiliated students). Third, we will offer an interprofessional education suicide prevention course for health professions students. Fourth, a novel bystander intervention program for problematic drinking will be piloted. Fifth, we will conduct a needs assessment and pilot Niner Resilient, an empowerment and social connectedness enhancement workshop for graduate and international students. Sixth, we will offer annual on-campus mental health screenings. As a culminating activity, we will establish a campus suicide prevention strategic plan, inclusive of a campus-community referral network, in order to sustain and codify grant policies and programs. Project Goals & Objectives: Goal 1 seeks to establish the campus strategic plan and campus-community referral network. Goal 2 will enhance QPR infrastructure by certifying 7 more trainers and offering training to 600 students, staff, faculty and police officers. Goal 3 features training enhancement in advanced trauma-informed and suicide prevention skills for 20 campus health staff and 50 health professions students. Goal 4 will expose 50 students to a new bystander intervention program for problematic drinking. Goal 5 seeks to conduct a needs assessment of 50 graduate and international students, followed by resilience building and social connectedness programming for 50 such students. Goal 6 is to provide on-campus mental health screening for 150 students. The UNC Charlotte team has designed a grant program that responds to the recent traumatic events on the campus and surrounding Charlotte, NC community. Using trauma-informed, social-ecological, and community-academic partnership approaches, this grant will improve the infrastructure needed to identify students in distress, provide evidence-based care, serve high risk groups, innovate in alcohol and suicide prevention programming, and sustain gains achieved over the grant period.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
