Colleges and Universities

Click on each individual area of strategic intervention to learn more:

Research on college students shows that many students who need help do not seek it out on their own. The responsibility for identifying students at risk for mental health problems and/or suicidal behavior is not limited to mental health professionals. On a daily basis, more students come in contact with student personnel staff, residence hall staff, academic deans and advisors, faculty, their fellow students, campus clergy, coaches, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers than with counselors. All of these people can help to identify and refer a student in distress for help.

How do we identify those students, to prevent worsening of existing symptoms or deal with issues that could lead to more serious distress if not addressed? “Gatekeeper” training is perhaps the most widely used strategy to recognize and refer distressed or distressing students. Gatekeeper trainings aim to provide those who have contact with students (faculty, residence life staff, custodians, or peers) with the tools to identify students at risk, and make referrals as necessary.

Campuses are using a variety of other methods to identify students at risk and reach out to those students in need, including:

• Asking questions about mental health on medical history forms completed by incoming first year students to identify high-risk or potentially high-risk students and encourage help-seeking.
• Holding events, like National Depression Screening Day, where students can be screened for depression and referred for additional services if appropriate.
• Reaching out through online screening questionnaires to students who may be at a higher risk or are less likely to seek out mental health services.
• Screening students who go to campus health services for symptoms of depression, other mental health problems, and suicidal behavior.
• Creating an interface between the disciplinary process and mental health services in order to identify students who may need treatment and promote help-seeking.
• Using a case management team, also known as a student-at-risk response team or a behavioral intervention team. A case management team “promotes information-sharing and coordinated action to address students who may be in distress or at risk for harming themselves or others” (The Jed Foundation, 2008).