Campus Suicide Prevention Grants

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2009 for Campus Suicide Prevention Grants. The purpose of this program is to facilitate a comprehensive approach to preventing suicide in institutions of higher education. This program is designed to assist colleges and universities in their efforts to prevent suicide attempts and completions and to enhance services for students with mental and behavioral health problems, such as depression and substance abuse, which put them at risk for suicide and suicide attempts. The Campus Suicide Prevention Grant program is one of SAMHSA's infrastructure grant programs. SAMHSA's Infrastructure Grants support an array of activities to help the grantee build a solid foundation for delivering and sustaining effective mental health prevention and treatment services. SAMHSA recognizes that each applicant will start from a unique point in developing infrastructure and will serve populations/communities with specific needs. Awardees may pursue diverse strategies and methods to achieve their infrastructure development goals. Successful applicants will provide a coherent and detailed conceptual “roadmap” of the process by which they have assessed or intend to assess suicide prevention needs and plan/implement infrastructure development strategies that meet those needs. The plan put forward in the grant application must show the linkages among needs, the proposed infrastructure development strategy, and increased system capacity that will enhance and sustain effective prevention programs and services. The Campus Suicide Prevention Grant program is authorized under the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act (Section 520E-2 of the Public Health Service Act, as amended). This announcement addresses Healthy People 2010 focus area 18 (Mental Health and Mental Disorders).