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The University of Maine’s Counseling Center and Peer Education Program received a $300,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSA) Sept. 8. The largest grant the Counseling Center has ever received, it will support The Touchstone Project, a program developed to strengthen suicide prevention at UMaine.
One of the aims of the project is to benefit students by increasing their comfort with UMaine’s mental health services. In the next three years, the university will receive $99,875 per year to fund the project.
The project has four components: review policy on how to handle students in stress, form the Touchstone Peers, train faculty and staff as Touchstone Resources and provide a Web-based program to screen students for depression.
The Web-based program, created by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, is an anonymous five to 10 minute survey that places participants at different levels for depression and suicide risk. The top-security program was piloted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of North Carolina and Emory University. Students create an ID and password to communicate with counselors about survey results. E-mail is not required, but if given, it is encrypted and rendered unreadable to health professionals. The program retains complete anonymity, according to Dr. Kylie Cole, Counseling Center director.
Students will receive feedback by a UMaine health professional who has analyzed their results. The counseling center hopes the anonymous dialogue online will create enough comfort for the student to come to the center, said Bethany Asquith, prevention graduate assistant for the Counseling Center.
A link to the survey will be sent by e-mail to first-year, transfer and graduate students. It targets incoming students for three years to offer them the opportunity for a screening. The survey will also be linked to the Counseling Center’s Web site for any student who has not been contacted through e-mail.
Touchstone Peers will be a group of students trained in suicide prevention, active listening and helping skills. They will act as mentors or go-to people for students, Asquith said.
Faculty will get a free half-day training workshop on suicide prevention, confidentiality and helping students handle stress. At the end of the training, they will receive a sticker for their office door, signalling students that they are a Touchstone Resource. The goal is to engage 10 percent of faculty in the program, at least one person in each department.
“They will be one more place for students to go who are uncomfortable with walking into the center,” Cole said.
Asquith, the primary author of the grant, began working on it September 2007 and submitted it January 2008. Five UMaine offices have sent letters of commitment to the Touchstone Project and several more have informally agreed to support the program.
The Counseling Center is in the process of hiring a Touchstone Project leader – a mental health clinician who will respond to the online screening and supervise all four aspects of the project. A large portion of the grant will contribute to the leader’s salary.
Cole, Asquith and the director of the Counseling Center, Dr. Doug Johnson, are hoping to start the project by January 2009.
Nationwide, one out of 10,000 college students commit suicide per year. In 2007, two UMaine students were suicide victims. A much greater percentage contemplate or attempt suicide, Asquith said. A majority of students who are at risk do not seek services.
After the grant expires, the Counseling Center hopes the program will continue with funding from SAMSA, other national or local organizations or the university.
“Hopefully we can show at the end of every year the good that this program is doing,” Cole said.
Currently, the Counseling Center consists of seven full-time clinicians, three pre-doctorate interns, two masters-level practicum trainees, two graduate assistants and one consulting psychologist. Students with six credits or more are eligible for the full range of counseling and psychological services free of cost. Students carrying fewer than six credits are eligible for group counseling, consultation and educational programs.
