Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
Chatham proposes the Jed X. Smith (JXS) Project. The aim of the JXS project is to enhance student wellbeing, increase help seeking and awareness of suicide and mental health/substance use disorder (MH/SUD) prevention, and decrease suicide/overdose events. The geographic catchment area for the JXS Project is the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, specifically, the students at Chatham University, their families, and the clients/patients that Chatham’s School of Health Sciences graduate students serve. About a third of graduate students stay in state; thus the JXS project will to positively impact suicide and MH/SUD prevention in Pennsylvania. Chatham has approximately 2,700 students. A small number identify as veterans or Hispanic; most are White and female. Four percent of students identify as Asian, 6% Black, 1% multiracial, 4% international; 2% identify as trans*. Among undergraduates, 16% are first generation students; 23% receive Pell grants. About 8% of students receive services at the Counseling Center; males and students who identify as Black or Asian are underserved. Chatham saw a 40% increase in enrollment in the last decade, straining infrastructure, including support for students holding marginalized identities and students who are distressed or at risk of suicide or overdose. We seek to increase the services offered, the number of students served, and to reduce disparities in service use so all students are well served. The goals and objectives of the JXS project are to: 1) Enhance mental health services by increasing staffing, consultation, and services offered; 2) Increase messaging campaigns to prevent suicide and mental health/substance use disorders; 3) Increase messaging campaigns to promote help seeking behaviors; 4) Identify and serve students at risk of suicide by training faculty, staff, and students; and 5) Minimize suicide events by disseminating suicide prevention resources and decreasing access to lethal means. We will meet these goals by developing an advisory team with experts from Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention as well as assistance from JED; adding a part-time counselor; increasing support groups and programming; and collaborating with student organizations to tailor messaging campaigns to increase awareness of services, suicide and MH/SUD prevention and increase help-seeking. Messaging campaigns will publicize local, state, and national suicide prevention resources, warmlines, and overdose prevention resources. We will also develop an At-Risk team to better support students at risk of suicide and reduce access to lethal means through drug disposal and lethal means safety review. The JXS project will train 3 mental health professionals (WD, interns & counselor) and 210 community members (TR1, students, faculty & staff); serve 678 students with individual EBP (T3) and 48 to 60 in EBP support groups & recovery services (T3), increase awareness for 1,625+ students (AW1), and collaborate with student groups (PC) and experts (PC).
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).
