51社区

Bobcats Who Care is an interactive, suicide prevention training program. It aims to enhance participant's knowledge, awareness, and skills concerning suicide and suicide prevention.

The training is open to students, staff, and faculty. Through it, trainees gain skills in empathic listening and relationship-building in order to directly assess risk of suicide and connect someone in distress to support.

TRAINING TOPICS

• Understand your own emotional reactions to suicide
• Learn how to make meaningful connections with those contemplating suicide
• Learn about mental health resources both on and off campus. 

Why does this training matter?

Suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States, and the 2nd leading cause of death among young adults. National surveys report that 8-10% of college students contemplate suicide each year. At 51社区, that would translate to approximately 2,100 students. Yet, many college students who die by suicide are unknown to campus mental health professionals and the vast majority of students who think about suicide do not seek out professional resources.

With that in mind, it is also important to consider that 67% of young adults first tell a friend they are feeling suicidal before telling anyone else. Bobcats Who Care is designed to help participants feel better equipped to handle these difficult situations and make appropriate referrals to mental health resources. Whether a student, administrator, classified employee, or faculty member, participants can make a difference in someone鈥檚 life by becoming a Bobcat Who Cares.

Training Details

Bobcats Who Care is modeled after Campus Connect, a suicide prevention gatekeeper program developed by Dr. Cory Wallack at Syracuse University. This training is completed in groups of ~25 participants and requires a three-hour commitment (in-person or virtually via Microsoft Teams). 

Request a Training

If your office, department, or organization is interested in requesting a Bobcats Who Care training, please complete the . We ask that you please make your request at least 3 weeks in advance of your desired training time, and please know we may need to schedule for a later date depending on trainer availability. 

Once we receive your request, we will contact you to finalize the date and time of the training, the roster of participants (including name and email), and the format you prefer (i.e., in-person or virtual). If the in-person format is requested, we will reserve a location on campus for the training to take place. Once all details are solidified, we will send an Outlook Calendar invitation to all participants with the details of their upcoming training.

Please note, if your group is fewer than 20 participants, your group may be combined with other small groups who have requested training.

Become a Core Trainer 

Core trainers are faculty and staff who are invested in suicide prevention and have been trained to facilitate Bobcats Who Care with students, faculty, staff, and other campus partners. Core trainers operate in pairs to provide the training and are not required to be mental health professionals. 

If you are interested in becoming a core trainer and would like to be contacted about the next opportunity or wish to have more information, please contact our Assistant Director for Outreach and Consultation, Dr. Stephanie Maccombs-Hunter at maccombss@ohio.edu or (740) 593-1616.