Suicide Prevention Focused Grants
Six Major Federal Grants Currently Being Implemented in Florida to Assist with Suicide Prevention Efforts
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Florida Implementation of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (FINS) Project
The FINS Project is a partnership of the SOSP, the University of Central Florida (UCF), the University of South Florida (USF), and Florida Hospital. Using a mentorship model, FINS will adopt and integrate the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to ensure that health and behavioral health settings and adult-serving systems are adequately prepared to identify, engage, and treat at-risk adults with culturally competent evidence-based/best-practice (EB/BP) suicide prevention, treatment, safety planning, and care coordination services.
The goals of the project include:
- Transform health and behavioral health systems infrastructure through the development of Zero Suicide advisory committees, suicide prevention policies and procedures, and the integration of EB/BP measures and mechanisms to monitor suicide care
- Enhance the collaboration of local and state-level partnerships to promote Zero Suicide and National Suicide Prevention Lifeline utilization
- Develop workforce training capacity to utilize EB/BP suicide prevention strategies
- Enhance care coordination strategies to increase the number of recovery and support linkages for at-risk adults to be referred and sustained in the right treatment at the right time
- Improve the coordination, sharing, and tracking of suicide-related indicators (suicide ideation, attempts, deaths, service utilization) via regional and state-level data surveillance systems
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Central Florida Pathways to Awareness, Support, and Services (C PASS) Project
The C PASS Project, a Now is the Time Project Aware Community Grant, is a partnership between UCF, USF, and the Florida Council for Community Mental Health (FCCMH). This project aims to coordinate, strengthen, and enhance system-wide efforts to expand Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) training, behavioral health outreach, and engagement initiatives to high risk regions in Central Florida. These areas include Citrus, Lake, Sumter, Orange, Seminole, and Volusia counties. YMHFA is an 8-hour education program for youth-serving adults that introduces participants to the unique risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems in adolescents and teaches individuals how to help an adolescent who is in crisis or experiencing a mental health challenge, including suicide.
Training and outreach efforts target frontline professionals who work with high-risk youth experiencing mental health and substance use issues and who encounter significant life stressors and adversities such as exposure to violence, abuse, neglect, poverty, and other forms of victimization.
The C PASS Project supports the training of those who interact with youth through their programs at the community level, including child protective investigators, community mental health partners, law enforcement, school personnel, faith-based leaders, and parents. Implementation of the C PASS Project aims to increase mental health literacy among youth-serving adults, policy-makers, and administrators of programs serving youth.
Major grant activities completed to date are summarized below:
- Trained 789 people in YMHFA; 41 trainings conducted
- Partnered and established YMHFA trainers within DCF, Lutheran Services Florida Health Systems, Marion County Children's Alliance, and the Community Based Care of Central Florida to train in multiple sectors across Central Florida. These sectors include child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health, education, law enforcement, and non-profit social services
- Certified eight individuals as YMHFA instructors
- Participated in 61 community events and disseminated more than 3,000 materials to promote the C PASS project, mental health awareness, and help seeking resources
- Identified and referred 640 youth to mental health services, crisis services, or other supportive services
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Florida Linking Individuals Needing Care (FL LINC) Project
The FL LINC Project, a Garret Lee Smith State/Tribal Suicide Prevention Program, is a partnership between the SOSP, the FCCMH, UCF, USF, and three Managing Entities to develop innovative strategies to enhance services reaching at-risk priority populations.
Grant activities target the central, southeast, and northeast regions of the state. The goal of this grant is to increase the number of agencies, organizations, schools, and groups working together to implement suicide-prevention initiatives, in addition to improving care coordination services (follow-up care after a suicide or an attempt) to at-risk youth ages 10-24.
Major grant activities completed to date are summarized below:
- Worked with four behavioral health organizations to change policy and procedures, develop training plans, and implement a suicide care pathway in adolescent crisis stabilization units
- Partnered with three Managing Entities and four behavioral health organizations to implement the Zero Suicide initiative and pilot a Care Coordination Model of Care with youth ages 10 to 24 who are discharged from a crisis stabilization unit
- Promoted the LINC project and activities at local meetings and events as of October 2017, participated in 235 partnership meetings and disseminated 7,078 LINC marketing materials to promote suicide prevention awareness, education, and training
- Provided the following LINC trainings throughout the target regions:
- Question, Persuade, Refer, and Treat, a suicide risk assessment and risk management training, online plus role-play to 46 clinicians
- Question, Persuade, and Refer, a basic suicide prevention gatekeeper training to 1,905 individuals, including 195 emergency room staff
- Suicide risk assessment and safety planning to 287 individuals
- Care coordination principles to 139 individuals
- Family training for 192 parents/family members of at-risk youth
- Postvention training for 225 school personnel
- Distributed suicide prevention related resources:
- 7,672 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline materials at events, meetings, and trainings
- 3,597 USF Family Guides at events, meetings, and trainings
- Provided care coordination services to 145 at-risk youth transitioning out of acute care (services provided for up to 90 days post discharge)
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Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education (AWARE) Project
The Department of Education’s AWARE project builds and expands the capacity of state educational agencies to increase awareness of mental health issues among school-aged youth. The AWARE project provides training for school personnel and other adults who interact with school-aged youth to detect and respond to mental health issues. Training focuses on how to connect children, youth, and families who may have behavioral health issues with appropriate services and supports.
The goals of the project are to increase:
- Youth access to mental health services and supports
- Implementation of evidence-based, culturally responsive mental health practices
- Awareness of mental health issues within Florida’s youth, families, schools, and communities
At the state level, partners from multiple youth-serving systems and organizations serve on a State Management Team that provides oversight and leadership to systems that serve youth. At the local level, three Florida AWARE districts are developing and implementing a multi-tiered system of mental health supports that will serve as a model for future growth. Florida AWARE has 44 certified YMHFA trainers throughout the state that conducted 56 YMHFA trainings at no cost to participants.
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Noles CARE in Academics Project
Florida State University’s (FSU) Noles CARE in Academics Project aims to enhance existing campus suicide prevention interventions by providing more accessible resources to academic departments across the FSU campus. Noles CARE train faculty, staff, and students within FSU’s academic departments on local sources of support in the learning environment of students, and to encourage early detection of student distress and referrals for professional help. Noles CARE incorporate specific components into the training that addresses high-risk groups, such as members of the LGBTQ community, those identifying as racial or ethnic minority students, and student veterans.
The goals of the project include:
- Assess the needs of faculty, staff, and students within academic departments in carrying out suicide prevention efforts; the desire to implement suicide prevention training within academic departments; and the preferences of faculty, staff, and students for receiving suicide prevention training within academic departments
- Increase the percentage of faculty and staff who feel competent in handling students’ mental health concerns
- Increase the percentage of student leaders who feel competent in intervening with distressed peers
- Increase the perceived efficacy and comfort of students with talking to faculty and peers about getting help with their mental health concerns
- Utilize a multidisciplinary leadership network to integrate suicide prevention training with other mental health initiatives on campus to increase student support for mental health within academic departments
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Healthy Knights 2020 Project
The UCF Healthy Knights 2020 initiative promotes a campus-wide environment supportive of the development and maintenance of a healthy body, mind, and spirit to decrease the occurrence of mental health issues that lead to suicide. Currently, the UCF campus has several options for students to receive health, mental health, and behavioral health services. However, following a pivotal on-campus suicide incident in 2013, the University recognized needed improvement in the area of suicide prevention.
The goals of the project include:
- Develop a crisis response plan that encompasses not only the UCF campus community, but the greater Orlando community, which includes linkage to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
- Increase awareness of suicide risk factors such as depression and substance use, the warning signs, prevention strategies, and resources specifically for high risk populations such as LGBTQ, students with co-occurring substance use and mental health issues, and student veterans through gatekeeper trainings
- Provide information on suicide prevention, identification, and reduction of risk factors, such as depression and substance abuse, promoting help seeking, and reducing the negative attitudes towards seeking care for mental and substance use disorders
- Create brochures and public service announcements specific to UCF and its community to help increase the awareness of suicide prevention
- Become a member of the Campus Program available through the Jed Foundation
For more information about the six grants visit http://www.sprc.org/search/florida%20grants.