The NDSU Counseling Center is in the process of scheduling NDSU CARES training sessions for the fall semester and invites offices, departments and student groups to contact the center to schedule a training session.

NDSU CARES (Campus Awareness, Referral and Education for Suicide Prevention) has now trained more than 1,200 members of the campus community about the warning signs of suicide and the steps that can be taken to decrease the risk of suicide for students, faculty and staff. The goal of NDSU CARES is to train 1,800 members of the campus community during a three-year period ending this fall.

It is estimated that 1,100 college students die by suicide each year, an average of three per day, and many times that number (1.5 percent of the college population) report having made at least one suicide attempt. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for 10-24 year-olds in North Dakota and 15 percent of these suicides happen completely without warning.

While a variety of campus offices offer support to students, most college students who successfully complete suicide have never had contact with their campus health center or counseling center. For this reason, the goal of NDSU CARES and “gatekeeper” training programs is to develop as large a safety net as possible for students. Just as people trained in CPR help save thousands of lives each year, people trained as gatekeepers learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis, how to have a caring conversation with a distressed student and how to refer the student for help.

Members of the NDSU Cares team will come to you for the training session. Separate training sessions have been developed for faculty and staff versus students; the standard length of a training session is one hour. Contact the center at 1-7671 to schedule a training session.