JED Campus Initiative

Numerous studies show that social and emotional learning approaches are effective at building social and emotional skills. These core skills not only improve social, emotional and academic functioning, but also serve as powerful protective and coping tools modulating tough times and keeping potentially suicidal youth, adolescents, and adults safe. 

Empirical evidence clearly suggests that people need connection to others as well as a connected sense of belonging to the community. This need for connection is particularly salient for college students who have often left family, friends, and community behind.

Timely identification of those at risk is critical in the effort to link people to help. Studies also suggest that groups such as men as well as Blacks, Asians, & Hispanics have higher internalized stigma and other barriers to care and may need additional outreach and prevention efforts before they seek help. 

Barriers which reduce help-seeking include beliefs that one should solve problems on one’s own, that it is weak to have problems, that one might be judged by others, and that friends and family may not see help-seeking as legitimate. Seeking help is a common part of life and impacted by age, sex, minority status, and rural vs. urban location. 

Best practice guidelines call for suicidal thoughts and behavior to be addressed directly by evidence-based approaches in addition to treating any underlying disorder. Most people at risk for suicidality do not receive professional care. When adequate care is available, treatment is effective at reducing rates of death by suicide. 

Arranging the environment to decrease suicidal behavior is highly effective and life-saving for the majority of people considering a suicide attempt. 

While all college students face challenges including social, emotional, financial, and academic pressures, students of color often experience additional sources of psychological distress. Discrimination, imposterism, stigma, cultural mistrust, and feelings of isolation are among the factors that can adversely impact the mental and emotional well-being of students of color. Compounding these stressors is the reality that college students of color are less likely to seek and to receive mental health treatment even though they have similar rates of diagnosable mental illness compared to white students.