For the past four years, St. John Fisher University has participated as a JED Campus, a not-for-profit initiative that partners with high schools and higher education institutions to improve mental health awareness, substance use awareness, and promote suicide prevention efforts on campuses. As the University’s time as a JED campus wraps up, the campus community may wonder what that means for mental health resources at Fisher.
Fisher became a JED campus in 2019, and while campuses usually enroll for a four-year cycle with the organization, the impact of the COVID pandemic allowed the University to receive an additional year of the partnership. “Through this partnership, we began to embark on an internal review of current campus practices and resources related to mental health, substance use, and suicide prevention,” Rebecca Kieffer, Director of the Health and Wellness Center said.
Kieffer said that Fisher’s partnership with JED has strengthened critical areas of campus that support the well-being of students. More than 500 students, faculty, and staff completed training in the QPR (Question, Persuade, Response) technique, a method used for suicide awareness and prevention, as well as initiating a campus trauma response team and additional counseling in the Health and Wellness Center.
While Fisher will no longer be a JED campus in name, it will continue to remain so in practice.
“Ending our time with JED will not impact student resources in any way,” Kieffer said. “We will continue to retain our current staff for medical and counseling services. No positions in our center were funded [by] this initiative. In fact, it is our goal to serve students as quickly as we can.”
The Health and Wellness Center now has online forms for counseling and medical requests available through the patient portal. As of this fall, the addition of the Lifeline for Suicide and Crisis response number, 988, has been added to all new students IDs. Returning students can request a new student ID with the 988 information at the Office of Safety and Security.
“I can assure the campus community that the efforts towards mental health awareness, substance use awareness, and suicide prevention will not end.”
The Health and Wellness Center will be launching a Healthy Minds Survey to the campus community on Monday, Oct. 28. The survey will bookend Fisher’s time as a JED campus and provide comparison data from its initial launch in February 2021, allowing for the evaluation of JED’s collective impact on the campus and provide information about the current student population.
“We will remain a JED Alumni Campus to signify that we have completed the four years of the partnership,” said Kieffer. “I can assure the campus community that the efforts towards mental health awareness, substance use awareness, and suicide prevention will not end.”
Students can reach out to Kieffer with any questions about mental health resources on campus at [email protected]. The Health and Wellness Center is available Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Additionally, the Lifeline for Suicide and Crisis response can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week through both calling and/or texting 988.
A version of this article was published on St. John Fisher University’s News & Events website.
