Division of Student Affairs

Dr. Garrett Gilmer, Director of the Counseling Center and Associate Director of the Center for Health, Dr. Faith Yingling, Director of Wellness, and Dr. Terry Rentner, Professor and Director of the School of Media and Communication, have secured a grant totaling more than $300,000 to support the creation and implementation of a new suicide prevention initiative on campus. The purpose of their program, Empowering a Community: Creating a Culture of Care for Suicide Prevention, is to develop a more strategic and comprehensive approach to suicide prevention at BGSU. Specifically, this project intends to focus on developing programs, activities, and social marketing aimed at the following:

• Educating faculty, staff, and students about warning signs of suicide
• Empowering (through education and training) faculty, staff and students to intervene with students who may be exhibiting indications of distress or suicide risk
• Reducing stigma associated with help seeking behaviors
• Creating a culture of care on campus that promotes shared responsibility for suicide prevention
• Increasing awareness of resources for help among the student body including on-campus resources and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Watch the ABC News report on the project.