Building Capacity for Campus Suicide Prevention: A Policy Practice Partnership

Post-secondary student mental health is of great concern, with increased rates of anxiety, depression, feelings of isolation, and suicidality observed. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated mental health stressors and concerns about campus suicides, already on the rise. In response, the BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions has funded the BC Campus Suicide Prevention Initiative (CSPI), partnering with the Canadian Mental Health Association, BC division (CMHA BC) who will distribute funding and offer technical support to all 25 BC publicly funded post-secondary institutions. This HSIF project will evaluate the implementation and early impacts of the CSPI, identify where further support is needed, and provide recommendations for how the public health system can ensure long-term and sustainable impacts and national scale-up to improve post-secondary suicide prevention and overall mental health and well-being. This study has the following aims: 1. to monitor early outcomes across the CSPI program’s implementation; 2. to understand the mediating role of CMHA BC (program administrator and technical support coordinator) in the collaborative processes and outcomes of participating post-secondary institutions; and 3. to assess scalability and sustainability of the CSPI in BC and nationally.

Faculty Supervisor:

Emily Jenkins

Student:

Corey McAuliffe

Partner:

Canadian Mental Health Association

Discipline:

Nursing

Sector:

Health care and social assistance

University:

University of British Columbia