EDINBURG — The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine is soon to receive a federal grant intended to kick off a suicide prevention program.
The $304,490 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will become effective Sept. 1, when the School of Medicine, in collaboration with the university’s Counseling Center, will begin training specialists who will then offer services to students, staff and community members when possible.
“Often, suicide happens because people don’t see the way out,” said Eugenia Curet, School of Medicine assistant dean for Counseling and Wellness. “Especially the college students and medical school students with academic demands; they don’t know what to do and how to take care of themselves.”
The same grant had been awarded to UTRGV’s legacy institution, UT-Brownsville in 2011, she said. Even though it focused on offering support services in-campus, they also expanded to benefit the community by training public school counselors, police officers and by putting together a conference focused on suicide prevention.
“We did a lot of work with that because there was a need and even had a conference because at the time there was a string of suicides among young people in Weslaco,” Curet said.
This training will include mindfulness, meditation and other skills to help teach people how to take care of themselves when feeling overwhelmed.
The university’s other legacy institution, UT-Pan American, was also seeing the benefits of the 2011 award, she said, but now that these two campuses and other teaching centers throughout the Valley are all part of UTRGV, the hope is that it will help spread the benefits even further.
“We are going to do all the work that is necessary on the campuses, but also extend it to the community,” Curet said.
The first step this fall will be to begin with the trainings and planning on how the resources will be implemented across the university campuses, she said.
The idea is to put together a cohort of 10 sucide prevention instructors, which will include counselors, social workers, community agencies workers, and hospital workers. Then once everyone is trained in the subject, they will gather to put together a timeline of events and services that can be offered, she said.
A second conference will also be planned, as the grant provides funding for this type of community outreach options.
The university itself will also match the funding by providing staff and other resources necessary, Curet said.
“They have to be available to do mental health counseling, suicide prevention training and available to participate in the implementation of the wellness program,” Curet said. “So the time and money that the university puts in matches the amount of money that the government is giving.”
The main goal for this new grant will be to spread the message that seeking mental health counseling when needed does not mean a person will be labeled crazy. This stigma, she added, is what keeps many people from seeking life-saving help.
“The most important thing is to bring the message to everyone that if you have a mental health problem, an emotional problem, the healthiest thing is to seek help and not see it as a stigma,” Curet said.
– Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.
– Each year 44,193 Americans die by suicide
– On average, there are 121 suicides per day
– Men die by suicide 3.5x more often than women
Source: afsp.org
