Happy Daze: New Mental Health Initiative

Content Warning: Mention of Mental Health, Suicide, Addiction 

Have you heard of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Garrett Lee Smith Grant? The SAMHSA Grant is a federal government endowment dedicated to substance misuse and mental health for college universities. SAMHSA, under the Department of Health and Human Services, created the grant to help “lead public health efforts to advance the behavioral health” of students on college campuses (samhsa.gov, 2024). Just last semester, St. Lawrence University received a $95,687 initial grant, and it is renewable for two more years. Just like any grant, the money is reserved solely for mental health and substance misuse efforts like suicide prevention training, harm reduction supplies, peer support groups and more. This grant was all thanks to Carol Smith, the senior officer who manages grants for the university, Tara Tent, director of counseling services, and Laura Lavoie, director of wellness education! 

Last September, Kelsey Jones started working as the grant Comprehensive Care Network Project Coordinator and Prevention Specialist at St. Lawrence. Jones, along with Tent and Lavoie have been working together to bring new initiatives to campus! Many students don’t always see the hard work and effort the university does behind the scenes, but “it has been keeping us busy for the past few months!” said Lavoie. 

The first initiative is to bring Question, Persuade, and Refer training to campus. QPR training teaches trainees how to safely question if someone is suicidal, persuade them to seek help, and refer them to resources. This is a type of bystander training that allows others to identify warning signs of someone who is suicidal or experiencing suicidal ideation, which is having passive thoughts about suicide. From there, the training addresses how to ask someone if they are suicidal and covers the necessary steps to take to help the individual in crisis. Already, many have recognized the benefits of this training for both personal and professional use, as there have been multiple successes to date with faculty/staff and students, and there are more to come. Lavoie stated, “It is our hope that all faculty/ staff and students within the St. Lawrence Campus will be QPR trained and certified by offering monthly QPR training to those interested.” This hour-long, interactive training is held in person; clubs and organizations interested in getting QPR trained can contact Kelsey Jones at kjones@stlaw.edu. 

The second initiative is to fund two peer support channels. The first is TalkCampus, which is an anonymous online peer support platform available 24/7. This unique part of this network is that students can connect with their peers around the world to talk about common college stressors, like lonliness, homesickness and academic stress. The platform has a diverse body of users with over 20+ languages, ensuring everyone can find users they can understand and relate to. By each sharing their experiences and challenges, students may feel more seen with online peer support as they know they are not alone and can provide helpful tips to support one another. St. Lawrence University is currently in the process of launching the TalkCampus platform for students, which will go live later this semester! 

Lastly, the Wellness OffIce and counseling teams are also in the process of developing an in-person Peer Wellness Tutor program. Once trained, tutors will be able to assist with those common college concerns. In addition, this is an added resource where students can go in person and talk with other students about their struggles and barriers. A Peer Wellness Tutor will listen to your concerns and work with you to create a wellness plan for college, such as talking through options for regular exercise, sleep, hygiene tips and more. Applications for tutors will go live after spring break, and tutors will be available beginning in fall 2024! 

All in all, these projects, sponsored by the SAMHSA grant, are meant to “increase resources to improve student mental health and wellbeing, as well as reduce suicide risk and better educate students about how substance misuse negatively impacts mental health,” said Lavoie. “There’s a saying that ‘substance misuse prevention is suicide prevention’ because research shows that suicides and suicide attempts are significantly affected by substance use, particularly alcohol use. We want our campus to be informed of both warning signs and risk factors so that we can all look out for each other as Laurentians.” 

These initiatives, thanks to Jones, Lavoie, and Tent, align closely with the goals in our JED Strategic plan. If you don’t already know, in the fall of 2021, St. Lawrence University began a partnership with the JED Foundation, which aims to improve students’ emotional wellbeing through a comprehensive public health approach. As a JED Campus, these efforts do just that. And there is more to come, as Lavoie stated: “We recently rebranded the JED Campus Committee as THRIVE—Together for Healthy, Resilient, Invigorating, Vibrant Experiences. The committee, which is collectively working on goals and objectives related to student wellbeing, has representatives from numerous areas of campus, including students, faculty and staff from Student Life, Athletics and more.” A big thanks to all the faculty and administrators who were a part of their initiatives, and keep an eye out for more efforts like these that foster wellbeing and cultivate a larger support network! That is all for this week, Saints! 

To make a counseling appointment: 315-229-5392 

SLU’s 24/7 Crisis and Counseling Line: 315-229-1914 

Advocate’s Hotline: 315-244-5466 

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 

Crisis Text Line: Text “HOME” to 741-741 

SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)