Following a difficult fall 2021 semester, Saint Louis University began mental health awareness and suicide prevention training for Housing and Residence Life (HRL) staff. 

        Led by Communities Healing Adolescent Depression and Suicide (CHAD), the training focused on various topics such as suicide risk among college students, potential barriers to help-seeking, assessing risk factors, navigating conversations on these topics, SLU protocol for crisis response and self-care. 

     After SLU grieved the loss of two students in the fall semester, a Change.org petition campaigned for improving mental health policies while students voiced their disappointment with the campuses counseling department. 

      The Director of Housing and Residence Life, Manisha Ford Thomas, provided insight into the training and what it holds for the HRL staff and the student body. 

      Ford-Thomas said: “We complete training every semester which supports being trauma informed and having mental health resource knowledge. This particular training, our focus was more intensive in this area.” 

      The training took place from January 12-14 and was an in-person interactive event which included different cases and open discussions and online modules were part of training. CHAD speakers collaborated with the HRL staff and guided the students through the training. 

   The SLU staff also completed the Mental Health First Aid (MFHA) course. Ford-Thomas explained, “The skills-based training was focused on mental health and substance-use issues and offered many resources to connect Billikens to appropriate employee and community resources. 

     The current staff is now equipped with three-year certification.” HRL intends on providing the MFHA training to incoming staff members each year. 

       Elisabeth Vaughn, a junior resident advisor, mentioned that the training event included information on identifying risk factors in students such as depression, suicidal thoughts, and how to ask difficult questions. 

       Vaughn said the training “addressed the situation head-on but in a sensitive way.” Vaughn also emphasized that mental health crises are a common situation she sees as a residence advisor, so this training was necessary long before the last semester. However, it was the events of fall 2021 that made the department handle and see it in a more active way. 

       Vaughn mentioned that she wished this type of intensive training could have occurred earlier, arguing that it could have created a different environment surrounding mental health last semester. 

       One-on-ones with RA’s will be used in the future to assure students they are cared for. Vaughn said, “personally, I hope to be more confident with this training carrying out conversations that I was already having. Having a guide to look back on definitely makes you feel more qualified or confident in the delivery.” 

        The skills that the HRL staff learned will allow them to connect with the students in a different way than before. This is a big step towards removing the negative stigma surrounding mental health on SLU’s campus, as the university takes steps to address the struggles that students face. 

          While the nature of these conversations may be difficult, this training proves that they are still absolutely necessary. The established partnerships with CHAD and the MFHA courses shows that SLU is taking steps towards navigating mental health on campus and addressing how depression, anxiety, addiction or suicidal thoughts impact people walking right among us on West Pine.