Thursday, November 21, 2024
11/21/2024
Albright College proposes a GLS Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Program titled “Equity in Mental Health at Albright College,” to support campus-wide educational programs, events, and training to increase the level of understanding necessary to better support students in suicide prevention and provide a supportive, trauma-informed network, and ultimately to address mental health issues early and effectively. Albright College is a private liberal arts college in Reading, Pennsylvania, a mid-sized city with a population consisting of 56.5% people of color, and 30.9% of residents live in poverty. Albright’s student population, which the project will serve, mirrors the region’s population in that over half of the students are low-income, 45.1% are students of color, and 35.1% are first-generation college students. The project’s focus population is first-generation and low-income students as well as the full Albright student population. The proposed project will serve approximately 1,000 students annually and address the following goals and objectives. Goal 1: Create comprehensive infrastructure and collaborative networking for equitable access to mental healthcare and increased awareness of indicators of mental health problems, including suicidal and substance use concerns. Objective 1.1: Establish a cross-agency advisory council to increase collaboration among campus partners, behavioral health providers, student groups, and other community partners to convey the message that prevention of mental health and substance use disorders is a community responsibility in Years 1 through 3. Evidence of achieving 1.1 will entail the number of meetings, meeting minutes, the number of engaged stakeholders, and new MOUs with community partners. Objective 1.2: Increase awareness and services for first-generation and lower-income students, as indicated by the number of student referrals to Berkshire Psychiatric for longer-term therapy and the number of psychiatry hours used by students for assessment and medication management. Goal 2: Increase knowledge of prevention of suicide, mental health issues, and substance use disorders. Objective 2.1: Train 85% of students, faculty, staff, and key stakeholders to be gatekeepers who can identify students who are victims of trauma and/or who are in crisis, and increase the knowledge of where and how to refer for help. Yearly, the college will contract a keynote speaker on trauma-informed practice for all staff, faculty, and students. Using workshops, the project team will train faculty in Year 1, athletics in Year 2, and student and campus life in Year 3, resulting in 85% of faculty, staff, and students receiving training, as measured by attendance records. Objective 2.2: Increase access to culturally appropriate informational materials to the Albright community to increase awareness of mental health and substance use disorders. Produce and disseminate informational materials in hard copy and digital forms and conduct a campaign to ensure all students, faculty, and staff access the informational materials in Years 1 through 3. Goal 3: Promote help-seeking behaviors, reduce stigma and negative public attitudes, and foster a campus community where the community is engaged in ensuring that each student experiencing mental distress is identified, screened, and referred. Objective 3.1: Increase the number of mental health workshops offered to students to teach them help-seeking coping skills, study skills, goal setting, problem-solving, and indicators of mental health problems. One workshop will be conducted per week to target students in Years 1 through 3. Objective 3.2: Increase voluntary mental health and substance use disorder screenings and assessments using campus and community health partners from one time per year (current) to three per year in Years 1 through 3.
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).
