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Case Western Reserve University volume xlvii, issue 11 friday, 11/04/2015
Observer Continuing the conversation Suicide prevention grant shines light on campus mental health
Anne Nickoloff/Observer CWRU recently received a $300,000 grant to support mental health resources on campus. The money will be put towards suicide prevention programs.
Anastazia Vanisko Copy Editor With Mental Health Awareness Week drawing to a close, the question of how members of the Case Western Reserve University community can continue the conversation comes to the forefront. Thanks to a $300,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), CWRU is in the process of answering this question. Over the summer, CWRU was named one of 20 recipients of the Garret Lee Smith 2015 Campus Suicide Prevention Grant. For the next three years the grant will contribute to building a foundation for suicide prevention programs and increasing mental health education, especially in regard to suicide, on campus. There are limits to what the grant can be used for, though. “You couldn’t use the money for direct clinical care,” said Sara Lee, a staff physician at UHS and an assistant professor of Pediatrics at CWRU School of Medicine. “You couldn’t use the money for, say, we really need more therapists.” According to Eleanor Davidson, clinical director of health at University Health Service (UHS), and Lee, the grant will first be used to join the Jed and Clinton Foundation Health Matters Campus Program.
“You become a member of this program let them know where and how they can reand then they help you, first of all, assess what ceive help. These last two plans speak directly to you do have on campus that’s working,” said student concerns. Davidson. “They have Maia Delegal, founder and a 360 view of the whole “The way we talk president of CWRU’s chapter of campus and campuses about expectations across the country.” and the way people the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), hopes that the As their first step, Dawear their stress as SAMHSA grant will create a suividson and Lee will estabcide hotline for which students can lish an “interdisciplinary, a badge of courage be trained to answer calls. NAMI campus wide oversight needs to change.” itself focuses on educating CWRU team” which will work to determine what changes -Jes Seller, clinical students about mental illness. NAMI is not the only group need to be made. director of counseling that provides education on menLee says that this team for UCS tal health. The SMARRT prowill meet with groups from all over campus—consisting of univer- gram includes a mental health component, sity employees and students—in order to de- Theta Chi Fraternity sponsors Mental termine what areas of university mental health Health Awareness Week and Active Minds programs are lacking. These groups include is a group dedicated to promoting mental the LGBT Center, the Flora Stone Mather health awareness among college students. With so many groups promoting educaCenter for Women, the Faculty Senate and the tion on campus, Delegal wonders how atUndergraduate Student Government. Participation in the Campus Program will tendance at educational programming can also allow Davidson and Lee to examine the be increased. “How do you do that without suicide prevention structures of other universi- making it mandatory and without throwing ties in the program, see what works, then inte- money at the problem?” she asked. While Delegal believes that CWRU grate their findings into their ideas for CWRU. In addition to the Campus Program, Da- students have a good basic understanding vidson and Lee plan to improve student ac- of mental health as well as good intencess to crisis lines and to train community tions, she notes that it’s hard for students members to identify students in crisis and to recognize the severity of the stress they
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see in their peers. “What (students) see around campus is normal to them,” said Delegal. “Not getting sleep, only eating every other day.” “No campus is immune to the experience of students having high expectations of themselves,” said Jes Sellers, clinical director of counseling at University Counseling Services (UCS). “The way we talk about expectations and the way people wear their stress as a badge of courage needs to change.” How students react when a friend reaches out for help is arguably one of the biggest factors in the decision to seek professional resources such as counseling. In a 2011 survey by UCS of both CWRU undergraduate and graduate students, about 60 and 64 percent, respectively, sought help or support from a friend, peer or roommate during a stressful period. “Sometimes it takes a caring friend to walk someone over here (UCS) or to the Health Service,” said Sellers. “Many of our students come in and they do check off that a friend told them to come here.” Davidson believes that people’s experiences with friends or family with mental illness will motivate them to become more engaged with the mental health training CWRU plans to implement.
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