The Ohio Program for Campus Safety and Mental Health shares renewed focus to Mental Health Awareness

The Ohio Program for Campus Safety and Mental Health (OPCSMH) celebrated their inaugural Campus Safety and Suicide Prevention Symposium: Cultivating Caring Campuses on April 11, 2024. The symposium was dedicated to providing education to Ohio’s campus-community partners on evidence-based, culturally relevant resources related to campus suicide prevention and mental health promotion for students, staff and faculty. Over 100 attendees from across the state participated in this daylong event full of presentations and panel discussions with industry experts. Attendees learned to:

• Identify how colleges and universities can collaborate with the campus-community to leverage the promotion of student safety and well-being, mental health awareness and campus suicide prevention efforts.
• Identify outreach opportunities to engage student-focused programming that addresses stigma and barriers to accessing mental health care.
• Implement best practices, resources, and help-seeking options that target suicide prevention for all campus-community student populations.

Morning keynote speaker, Martin Swanbrow Becker, Ph.D., associate professor of psychological and counseling services at Florida State University, engaged the audience in a presentation on his research on the evaluation of suicide prevention programming on college campuses. Dr. Swanbrow Becker encouraged participants to appraise their campus climate and culture related to mental health promotion and suicide prevention, learn to increase the efficacy of suicide prevention programming, design ways to collaborate across campus to create a community effort in promoting mental health, and highlighted the importance of creating a culture of belonging on campus.

During a midday update, Huma Bashir, Ph.D., and Police Chief Kurt Holden presented on their Question, Persuade and Refer (QPR) training and mental health promotion initiatives at Wright State University using the funds they received as grantees of the Campus-Community Collaborative Grant from the OPCSMH. Dr. Bashir shared Wright State’s initiative to have all faculty and staff trained in QPR, while Chief Holden shared his perspective on incorporating QPR and mental health promotion into his role with campus and public safety officers. Chief Holden also shared impactful personal experiences from his life that fuel his passion for this work, including an inspiring message of his own journey which led to becoming Chief of Public Safety.

Afternoon keynote speaker, Corbin J. Standley, Ph.D., director of Impact Communication and Continuous Improvement with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, provided an update on the scope of the issue of suicide risk on college campuses. He emphasized the importance of addressing inequities in suicide prevention programming and considering the sociopolitical context of suicide risk and suicide prevention efforts. Some of Dr. Standley’s noteworthy points included the message that suicide is preventable and that we must reassess the “one-size-fits-all” approach to suicide prevention in order to best help all populations in need.

Following the symposium, attendees were welcomed to participate in a free and public screening of The S Word, a powerful feature documentary that puts a human face on a topic that has long been stigmatized and buried with the lives it has claimed. The film gives a platform to those with lived experience – people who have attempted to take their own lives and survived to tell their stories. The screening was followed by a panel discussion featuring Lisa Klein, Director of The S Word, and local content experts including Jenny Cureton, Ph.D., Doug Smith, M.D., DFAPA, Mykka Gabriel, LPCC, and third-year pharmacy student and member of the student mental health committee, Olivia King.

The OPCSMH is incredibly grateful for the new and continued support and collaboration from their partners. Thank you to Peg’s Foundation, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and the Ohio Department of Higher Education for their continued support of the program. Thank you to all the presenters and panelists that participated in this inaugural event.

The OPCSMH will host the 7th Biennial Conference on May 15, 2025. The OPCSMH encourages everyone to participate in Mental Health Awareness Month this May by seeking out educational resources about mental health, sharing them with peers and practicing self-care!

   Click here to access video recordings and here to access the presentation slides from the event!

Click here to access a list of resources from the presenters and other symposium attendees!

Click here to learn more about how to apply for Campus-Community Collaborative Grants!

Connect with the OPCSMH: Website| X | LinkedIn | Listserv

Submitted by the Ohio Program for Campus Safety and Mental Health  opcsmh@neomed.edu