The Counseling Center invites the NDSU community to participate in NDSU CARES (Campus Awareness, Referral and Education for Suicide Prevention), a suicide prevention project aimed at educating the campus about the warning signs of suicide and steps to be taken to decrease risk. The Counseling Center plans to train 1,800 members of the NDSU community during the next three years.
It is estimated that 1,100 college students die by suicide each year, an average of three per day. According to Mark LoMurray, director of the North Dakota Suicide Prevention Project, suicide rates for North Dakota youth and young adults are higher than the national average. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for 10- to 24-year-olds in North Dakota and 15 percent of these suicides are completely without warning.
Members of the NDSU community can participate in the project by taking part in the gatekeeper training program. According to William Burns, director of the Counseling Center, the focus of gatekeeper training is to develop the largest possible safety net for students. “While a variety of campus offices offer support to students, most college students who commit suicide have never had contact with their campus health center or counseling center,” Burns said. “For this reason, faculty and staff members, as well as other students are important points of contact for students in crisis. Just as people trained in CPR help save thousands of lives each year, people trained as gatekeepers learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis, how to have a caring conversation with a distressed student and how to refer the student for help.”
Beginning Feb. 23, a training session will be held in the Memorial Union from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. each Tuesday of the semester. This training session will be interactive in style. To register for one of the sessions, contact the Counseling Center at 1-7671.
Members also will come to your department, office or area to give a training session. Separate training sessions have been developed for faculty, staff and students. The standard length of a training session is one hour. Training sessions will be scheduled throughout the spring semester. To schedule a training session, call 1-7671. There is no limit to the number of faculty and staff members who can attend a session. Because student training sessions are more interactive, there is a limit of 20 students.
For more information, call 1-7671.
Jan. 21, 2009