Our Mission:
Embrace Mental Health is a group of young professionals speaking out to eliminate the stigma of mental illness by educating college-aged students about depression and suicide.
Our Purpose:
Embrace Mental Health’s purpose is to honor those who have lost their lives to suicide. We strive to identify and give voice to the silent sufferers, provide them with the courage to speak up, and link them to mental health services on their college campuses.
College SOS:
Embrace Mental Health’s goal is to fund and implement the evidence-based College Signs of Suicide (SOS) program
through our partnership with Mindwise Innovations. Embrace Mental Health is committed to growing its partnership with colleges, universities, and their communities to reach the common goal of providing suicide prevention services for all at- risk students.
As part of our effort, Embrace Mental Health assists with the planning of all components of the College SOS program, including on-site implementation as well as training for staff.
College SOS is designed to teach students to recognize the signs of depression, and suicide, empowering them to intervene when confronted with a friend or peer who is exhibiting these symptoms. This program highlights the relationship between mental illness and suicide, teaching students that suicide is often a fatal response to a treatable disorder –depression. The program encourages students to help their peers using the message, ACT: Acknowledge, Care, Treatment
- Acknowledge that you are seeing signs of depression or suicidal behavior in a friend and that it’s serious
- Care – Share your concern and show your support
- Treatment – Encourage your friend to seek treatment and let them know about the counseling services that are available
College SOS introduces students to the mental health community, on campus and beyond, and provides them with the tools and understanding needed to access it. The program contains both in-person and online components. The in-person component:
- Fosters a sense of belonging through small group interactions
- De-stigmatizes the mental health experience through discussion of commonly shared struggles
- Provides individual, often under-represented students, a voice by encouraging small group discussion
- Increases outreach and promotes empathy, belongingness, social responsibility and social activism
The online component is designed to move the program beyond the classroom, encouraging students to check their own mental health through your school’s online mental health screening program and your counseling resources.
Facts and Figures:
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people ages 18-25 year olds.
Each year, 1 in 12 college students have a suicide plan and more than 1,100 college students die by suicide each year.
At some college campuses, it takes up to three weeks just to get an initial intake session. In 2015, large campuses reported an average of one licensed mental health provider per 3,500 students.