Staying informed about suicide prevention

New course in online master’s teaches educators to be vigilant about mental health in schools

A groundbreaking program responding to growing concern over child and teenage suicide has been created by the Center for the Advancement of Mental Health Practices in Schools (CAMHPS), housed in MU’s College of Education.

The American Association of Suicidology names suicide as the third leading cause of death among 15-24 year olds; the first two are accidents and homicides. But, according to Jim Koller of CAMHPS, the incidence of suicide is higher than reported because police make their reports based on what they see after the fact. Some automotive crashes, for example, get marked down as accidents when they were actually intentional.

The Center for Disease Control recently declared adolescent depression a national epidemic. Coupled with the fact that an estimated 90 percent of suicide victims have a pre-existing mental illness such as depression, it’s easy to see why CAMHPS is trying to address the issue.

“The magnitude is just astounding,” Koller says. “It’s getting out of hand.”

This new suicide prevention program came out of a grant Koller wrote three years ago through the state Department of Mental Health. Missouri is one of 12 states to receive money from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) in Washington D.C.

The program is completely evidence-based. Both the online course and the training modules have been extensively researched to include the most current information, and every step follows the same principles as the center: prevention, early intervention, advocacy.

For education students worldwide

“We have designed the first suicide prevention course online in the country,” Koller says. “Most schools have some kind of program, but they’re all reactionary. Ours is based on proaction. We’re trying to get teachers to recognize when a kid is at risk.”

He offers additional statistics for emphasis: the CDC estimates that 22 percent of females and 11 percent of males seriously consider suicide every year. “If you’ve got a class of 25, that’s four or five students,” he says.

The course will be offered beginning in fall 2009 to graduate students through MU’s Center for Distance and Independent Study. The College of Education currently has 25 classes available online, with students around the U.S. and as far away as China.

The college’s distance education students include counselors, school psychologists and administrators in addition to teachers – all people that spend a large portion of the day interacting with students.

“Kids are under extreme academic stress; these days a C or even a B isn’t good enough,” Koller says. So we’re trying to educate the people who spend the most time with children during the day.”

For teachers in the field

Part of the grant funding went toward developing a series of 10 interactive lessons to train current teachers in suicide prevention. Each module is designed to last one to two hours, so it can be easily completed during teacher in-service.

The series covers increasingly difficult topics, from an introduction to cultural perspectives on suicide.

Each module includes an overview of the topic, myths and the associated facts, important terminology and discussion questions. The lessons were also put into a multimedia format designed to get participants thinking.

“In-service is usually at the end of the day, teachers are spaced out, and the last thing they want to do is to listen to another presentation,” Koller says. “The interactive multimedia allows them to test their own knowledge with different scenarios.”

CAMHPS will be field-testing the modules in 22 mid-Missouri school districts in collaboration with the Mental Health Leadership Academy, part of the Missouri Partnership for Educational Renewal (MPER).

For more information on any of the above programs, please contact Jim Koller at (573) 882-5096 or KollerJ@missouri.edu

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