One in four college students today live with mental health concerns.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young adults 15 to 24.
Many students leave their studies each year due to mental health issues, unmanageable stress, and distress. The resulting cost in human anguish and economic loss requires us to act. Protocols are your map to the work.
Postsecondary education campuses depend on many moving parts. What’s not agreed upon, written down, and widely distributed is likely not to happen as planned – particularly in a crisis.
These protocols will give your institution a clear path to support students through mental health interventions, crises, and in the challenging aftermath of a student suicide. The five individual protocols (early identification, intervention, crisis response, medical leave & re-entry, and postvention) provided below are for you to adapt to the needs of your campus.
We suggest that you name a long-term committee for this and other suicide prevention work. Your existing CARE Team or BIT Team may overlap with the new committee. These concepts will be helpful to your committee:
- Administrative leadership is essential.
- Transparency is the only healthy approach.
- Give yourselves the time to do this well.
- As with any life-saving work, you will want to update your protocols on a regular basis.