Thunderbird CARES (Connecting, Assessing, Referring, Empowering, & Supporting) Network - Southern Utah University (SUU) will implement the Thunderbird CARES Network in Cedar City, Utah, and the surrounding rural and frontier region to strengthen behavioral health prevention, early identification, intervention, referral, and recovery support for approximately 15,825 students. The project will serve all enrolled students, with particular attention to those experiencing suicidal thoughts or behaviors, depression, anxiety, serious mental illness, substance use concerns, emotional distress, social isolation, barriers to behavioral health care, and student veterans. Strategies include needs assessments and the Healthy Minds Survey; expanded screening and referral; a Community Stakeholder Collaboration Plan; an integrated Behavioral Health Response Network; supervised CAPS graduate practicum support; resilience programming; re-establishment of the Care and Support Team; gatekeeper and Canvas suicide prevention training; annual Suicide Prevention Conferences; outreach; and lethal means safety strategies. By project end, SUU will increase annual screenings from approximately 100 to 250, expand resilience participation by 50%, provide additional behavioral health support to at least 150 students annually, train at least 300 faculty and staff through CAST, increase QPR trainer capacity from 4 to 8, achieve 1,000 annual Canvas training completions, and increase annual exposure to suicide prevention and mental health awareness messages from 8,371 to 12,000 individuals.
