Adams State chosen for state suicide prevention pilot program (06-22-07)
Student Affairs staff at Adams State College are working on three initiatives to improve student mental health services and help prevent suicide.
The college is one of two in Colorado selected to develop a pilot program under the Higher Education Suicide Prevention Act, according to Adams State Dean of Student Affairs, Ken Marquez. The act permits universities in Colorado to voluntarily offer all students the choice of completing a consent form to designate a contact person and authorize school personnel to contact that person in the event there is a reasonable belief the student is in danger of self-harm.
While shootings like the one at Virginia Tech are extremely rare on America's college campuses, suicides, threats, and serious mental-health problems are not. Last year, the American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment, covering nearly 95,000 students at 117 campuses, found that 9 percent of students had seriously considered suicide in the previous year, and 1 in 100 had attempted it.
Gregg Elliott, director of the Counseling Center at Adams State, said national research shows between 43 and 50 percent of college students reported depression in the last year severe enough to impair their ability to function.
"It would be naive to think we are immune from these issues just because we are a small town college. We're a normal campus, and we are part of the national statistics," Marquez said. "There are issues on our campus, as well, and we're making efforts to address them."
The act (Colorado SB06-067) was spurred by the efforts of people like Dick McKee, who, due to privacy laws, was uninformed about his college-aged son's depression until after his son's suicide. Each student is free to change, revoke, or turn in a consent form at any time. This act-overwhelmingly passed in the Senate (30-0) and in the House of Representatives (29-5), and signed by the Governor on June 2, 2006-will last until July 1, 2010.
Colorado is one of six states that have passed suicide prevention legislation specifically related to the state's educational system. It is one of nine to allocate dollars to suicide prevention activities.
FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), enacted in 1974, makes it illegal to disclose a student's records to family members without the student's authorization. Also known as the Privacy Act or the Buckley Amendment, this federal law protects such information as: Social Security and student ID numbers, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, citizenship, religion/religious preference, grades, GPA, class schedule, and number of credit hours. (For more detail on FERPA, email ferpa@ed.gov or go to: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/ind ex.html)
Preventive Services
Marquez and his staff are also refining the college's Mental Health/Suicide Prevention policy and creating a task force to address "Students of Concern."
"The policy review is aimed at placing our focus on proactive assistance, rather then reactive punishment for students who may attempt to harm themselves," Marquez said. "We want to look more carefully at students who need help, so we can address the student's needs effectively."
Bruce Del Tondo, Adams State Director of Auxiliary Services and Student Housing, explained that housing staff and mentors for first-year students are regularly trained in how to recognize and respond to depression and mental health issues. About 850 Adams State students usually reside on campus, in addition to about 150 dependents who also live in the campus' family housing units.
Elliott said the "Students of Concern" task force will bring both student affairs and academic staff together biweekly in order to provide early intervention for students who are struggling mentally, emotionally, academically, or behaviorally.
"We believe it is important to develop mechanisms to proactively identify students with mental health concerns so that we can ensure they get the mental health services they need and offer assistance to help them be successful at ASC," Elliott said. "We are fortunate to have access to the services of the SLV Mental Health Center and SLV Regional Medical Center."
But he added that, as an isolated rural institution, Adams State needs to provide more resources for students that might otherwise be available in a large urban area. The Adams State Counseling Center offers free services to students and their families, as well as faculty and staff. It can be reached at (719) 587-7746.
By Julie Waechter
