WE ARE ONE Building a Community of Caring at ASU

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WE ARE ONE ! Building a Community of Caring
at ASU

• Albany State University
• Albany, Georgia

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Background

• Nearly half of all college age students suffer
  from mental health disorders,
• -only less than 25 are seeking treatment
  (Olfson, 2008)
• 55 of young people know of a peer who has
  attempted or died by suicide (Casey, 2003)
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death
  among traditional age college students (Johnson,
  2003).

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Rationale I

• Social Forces affect peoples behavior
• Human behavior cannot be understood simply in
  individualistic terms, we must always examine the
  social forces that affect peoples lives.
• Social integration is the degree to which people
  are tied to their social group.
• People whose social integration is weaker are
  more likely to attempt suicide (Durkheim, 1893).

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Rationale II

• Social Ecological Model
• The social context influences behavior,
  including institutional and cultural variables
  (McElroy, Bibeau, Steckler and Glanz, 1988)
• -intrapersonal factors
• -interpersonal processes and primary groups
• -institutional factors
• -community factors
• -public policy

Individual behavior
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Rationale III

• Health-Promotive Environments
• -health is influenced by multiple facets of
  physical and social environments
• -environments are multi-dimensional (social or
  physical, actual or perceived) with discrete
  attributes such as temperature or spatial design
  and constructs such as behavior setting
• -human-environment interactions occur at
  various aggregate levels
• -people influence their environments and these
  changes influence behaviors which influences
  the environment (Stokols, 1992, 1996).

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WE ARE ONE !

• This project will develop a multi-disciplinary
  team of students, peer educators, faculty,
  student health and mental health professionals,
  administrators, public safety officers, coaches
  and organizations to
• -identify, screen and treat depression,
  suicidal ideation and attempts by Albany State
  students,
• -increase knowledge of warning signs of
  depression and suicide prevention,
• -create protocol and referral
  policies/agreements within the college and
  community,
• -reduce the stigma of mental health counseling,
• -build a community of caring at Albany State
  University.

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WE ARE ONE !

• Goal I Identify students at risk for mental
  health distress and suicide (Jan-Feb)
• Obj. 1 Conduct a campus wide survey to identify
  priority issues
• Obj. 2 Determine the most appropriate ways to
  identify students at high risk of mental health
  distress and suicide.
• Strategies
• Conduct a survey with 400 students.
• Review screening tools and determine most
  appropriate.
• Determine vulnerable times for screening.

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WE ARE ONE !

• Goal II Educate and train the ASU community on
  the causes, identification and screening of those
  in distress (Feb-March)
• Obj. 1 Mobilize a multi-disciplinary team of
  college and community members.
• Strategies
• Select/develop culturally relevant training
  curricula.
• Develop protocol and referral policies and
  agreements for ASU departments and community
  organizations.
• Advocate for those needing mental health
  counseling and for increasing capacity at ASU.
• Offer training workshops to peer educators,
  faculty, staff and students.
• Offer training workshops on cultural competency
  in the delivery of mental health services and
  campus programs and resources.

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WE ARE ONE !

• Goal III Create a campus community where WE
  ARE ONE !, where the community is engaged in
  assuring each student experiencing mental
  distress is identified, screened and referred
  (Mar-Sept)
• Obj. 1 Develop a campus social marketing
  campaign, using team and student-developed
  prevention and resources messages, guiding
  students to campus and community resources for
  screening and treatment.
• Strategies
• Use findings from the survey to identify those
  at greatest risk build messages to encourage
  screening, referral and treatment, (Mar-Apr)
• Develop and print a campus and community
  resource directory, (Apr)
• Use information from the survey, choose
  appropriate methods to reach students at greatest
  risk, (Mar-Apr)
• Develop and print an emergency message phone
  sticker, (Apr)
• Develop and test email and text mail prevention
  and screening messages (Apr)

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WE ARE ONE !

• Goal IV All members of the ASU community will
  recognize mental health distress as a priority
  for action and know how to seek help for
  themselves and others.
• Obj. 1 Implement a campus-wide social
  marketing campaign. (Apr-May)
• Strategies
• Training workshops for resident hall managers,
  student services, student leaders, athletes.
• Materials disseminated throughout the campus.
• A campus resource directory of available
  campus/community resources disseminated
  throughout the campus.
• A campus TV and radio campaign.
• Email and text messaging.
• Distribution of prevention materials and
  resource directory to all incoming freshman.
• Link developed on the ASU website to
  www.lifeline.org website.

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WE ARE ONE !

• Goal IV All members of the ASU community will
  recognize mental health distress as a priority
  for action and know how to seek help for
  themselves and others (Apr)
• Obj. 2 Offer a community-wide resource fair on
  campus.
• Strategies
• Contact community and campus members to exhibit
  on available resources
• and prevention.
• Select date.
• Develop advertising materials and venues for
  Resource Fair.
• Conduct Resource Fair.

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Next Meeting Date?