The University of South Florida Collaborative Suicide Prevention Project

Project Overview

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently awarded a new three-year, $612,000 grant (which includes a $306,000 university match) to the University of South Florida (USF) as part of the Garret Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Initiative.This initiative, under the direction of Principal Investigator, Marc Karver, Ph.D. and Co-Principal Investigators, Kim Gryglewicz, Ph.D., Stephen Roggenbaum, MA., and Jack Darkes, Ph.D., plans to build upon university and state level resources and programs to enhance the existing university infrastructure and capacity to deliver and sustain effective mental health and substance abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery support services for college students.Collaborative efforts with campus departments, centers, organizations, groups, and community agencies will center on initiatives designed to raise awareness about suicide prevention and mental health wellness, enhance clinical competency standards to assess and manage suicide risk, and improve campus crisis protocols and care coordination systems to better identify, link, and follow-up with potentially at-risk students.

 

Specifically, the goals of the USF-CSPP are to:

Enhance campus infrastructure and capacity to promote, disseminate, and support culturally competent, evidence-based suicide prevention strategies.

Train and mentor campus faculty (health/MHPs) to utilize suicide risk assessments to identify, respond to, and refer at-risk students to appropriate sources of help.

Train campus faculty/staff/student/family member as gatekeepers to identify, respond to, and refer at-risk students and disseminate resource materials.

Enhance campus infrastructure and capacity to respond to an increased number of cross-system referrals and linkages of identified at-risk students to appropriate assessment, treatment, and recovery services.

Improve campus faculty, staff, student, family member, and surrounding community awareness, knowledge, and involvement in campus suicide prevention initiatives.

To improve student outcomes

 

Prevention services will target specific at-risk populations including (but not limited to): veterans, LGBTQ2-S students, racial and ethnically diverse students, international students, first generation students, student athletes, student substance users, and non-traditional students.