Campus wellness initiative - college of western idaho (CWI), a two-year, comprehensive, non-residential, open-access community college with locations in nampa and boise, idaho, in collaboration with…

Campus wellness initiative - college of western idaho (CWI), a two-year, comprehensive, non-residential, open-access community college with locations in nampa and boise, idaho, in collaboration with internal and external partners, proposes the campus wellness initiative project. With samhsa funding, CWI will markedly increase its capacity to implement, sustain, and improve mental health services and substance use prevention and treatment services. During the 2022-2023 academic year, CWI enrolled 6,195 college credit-seeking commuter students of whom 68% are white, 21% are hispanic, 2% are african american or black, 42% are male, 55% are female, and 3% are transgendered or other gendered. Among CWI's degree-seeking students, 37% receive pell grants and approximately 45% are first generation. CWI also serves 267 veterans. First-generation college students (45% of CWI students) do not access mental health treatment at the same rate as their non-first-generation peers. Low-income students traditionally have more barriers for accessing services, and financial stress is a significant predictor of screening positive for one or more mental health conditions. For these reasons, the populations of focus will be low-income, first-generation students and select groups (in compliance with state laws) at high risk for suicide and substance abuse, such as veterans. Project goals include: (1) establish the infrastructure to leverage existing resources, inform best practices, and share data with key stakeholders that improve well-being, increase behavioral health and emergency services, and mitigate suicide risk and substance use disorders for CWI students; (2) increase help-seeking behavior for CWI students, especially for student populations underrepresented in counseling services and those at high risk of suicide; and (3) promote universal and selective social connectedness at CWI. Project objectives include: 1.1. Create the CWI care council (C3) composed of key community stakeholders by spring 2025. 1.2. Develop supportive policies addressing students who need a medical leave of absence due to the presence of serious emotional disturbance, serious mental illness, or CO-occurring disorder by fall 2025. 1.3. Continue to promote the 24/7 988 suicide and crisis lifeline hotline. 1.4. Continue the planned healthy minds and ncha surveys, respectively, in each project year. Ncha will conduct surveys in 2024 and 2026 and healthy minds will be in 2025. 1.5. All CWI counseling staff will take the counseling on access to lethal means (calm) course by the end of year 1. 2.1. Engage 100% of student clubs in outreach activities by the end of year 1. This includes: (1) including information about substance abuse in mandatory club advisor training; and (2) engaging with the associated students of CWI on a regular basis to identify additional areas of support/areas of opportunity from a student perspective, in relation to substance abuse and mental health. 2.2. Conduct one mental health screening event each semester on campus, including community partners. 2.3. A minimum of one student club leader from each student club and faculty/staff liaisons will participate in a peer-to-peer intervention by spring 2026. 2.4. Integrate information about substance abuse, suicide prevention, and mental health into the planned curriculum for mandatory student title IX training by fall 2024. 2.5. Continue to offer and promote therapy assistance online. 2.6. All education and outreach training materials will contain information about reducing access to lethal means training by fall 2025. 3.1. Conduct two focus groups annually to understand students' needs to inform life skills programming by spring 2026. 3.2. Conduct two focus groups annually to understand students' needs to inform peer support programming by spring 2026. 3.3. Identify, adapt, and conduct outreach to students' families by spring 2026.