As part of my ongoing contract with NC State University School of Engineering for the past three years, we hold faculty and staff mental health and suicide prevention training for educators complete with practice conversations and cheat sheet resources that fit on a postcard. (AnneMoss also does these trainings in person and virtually for K-12 educators including teachers, school counselors and mental health staff, as well as school nurses.)
We have student and parent presentations separately. You can see one of those student wellness events here.
NC State University is committed to creating a foundation of wellness and we are currently in year three of that process when this training took place.
Heads of schools, department heads, and deans attended this training of about 50 faculty members from all areas of the school of engineering from professors to administrators.
This NCSU suicide prevention training for university staff was called:
ENGINEERING AN ENVIRONMENT OF WELLNESS: How to spot students in need of additional support- NCSU Faculty
This past year we held presentations for freshmen, grad students, upperclassmen, and an event with the Active Minds Students on campus.
We focus on having conversations about mental health and the difficult ones about suicide
How can we start a conversation about mental health with a class?
How do we have a mental health conversation that is not about suicide?
How do we find out if a student is thinking of suicide?
What do we say or do after learning a student is thinking of suicide?
How can we prevent contagion?
How can we go upstream to prevent students from getting to crisis? This is the fun part, the ideas part. And I present a lot of them so people can choose the one that suits their teaching style and comfort level. I have resources and handouts to support those efforts and offer written directions.
The training focused on signs of distress or suicide but mostly on what to say and do. We practiced having a conversation and went upstream and looked at case studies on how other educators have helped young people build coping skills. And I gave them tools to inspire difficult conversations the easy way.
I focus on practical, usable skills and the resources they can use to spark conversation. One of these is by doing a mental health quiz.
We also watched the 8-minute, Emmy award-winning documentary from 2016 called #StopTheStigma. The film was shot at NC State and that film helped me to understand how my son may have felt before he took his own life.
This film was a game-changer for me and for those in the room who had not yet seen it. I referenced this video in an article I wrote in 2016 that went viral.
I wrote in that article:
“I watched a video recently of North Carolina State students who attempted suicide and survived. One young woman said, ‘You’re worried that if you tell them [your family] how you feel that they’ll see all this ugliness, this darkness, and this weakness inside you.‘”
“I think this is why many sufferers don’t reach out. A lack of understanding and the uncomfortable nature of mental illness make people turn away because we think it’s ugly and we don’t want to go there. Those of us who have struggled to keep a child with mental illness stable know this agony. The lack of conversation has resulted in few resources and a lot of misunderstanding.“
Quote from “Honoring my Son Who Died By Suicide is Not the End of My Story” by Anne Moss Rogers, 2016, Richmond Times Dispatch
See the Emmy-winning video created at NC State by the counseling center in 2016 called #StopTheStigma. On YouTube.
See AnneMoss’s Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Training Programs for Educators here.
Feedback from Attendees of the Faculty Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Training
I ask people to list “one thing they learned” on index cards and these are some of the responses.
“I now have new techniques to employ in my class. This breaks the barriers I had. I wanted to engage with my class but didn’t know how.”
–Professor, NCSU School of Engineering, From 2024 Faculty Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Training
“I learned that it’s OK to not know exactly what to do; that it’s more important to stay present and explore a path forward together.”
—-Academic Advisor, NCSU School of Engineering, From 2024 Faculty Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Training
“I learned that it’s OK to not know exactly what to do; that it’s more important to stay present and explore a path forward together.”
—-Staff Attendee, NCSU School of Engineering, From 2024 Faculty Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Training
“I can help students face their struggles and I feel better equipped to be there for them.”
—-Professor, NCSU School of Engineering, From 2024 Faculty Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Training
“Thanks to your training, I was able to ask a student about suicide today. While I was nervous, it was strangely empowering.”
—-Teaching Professor, NCSU School of Engineering, From 2023 Faculty Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Training
AnneMoss Rogers is a leading wellness and suicide education expert and one of the top mental health speakers and suicide prevention speakers. Known for her powerful, motivational keynotes, AnneMoss combines her personal story of loss with proven strategies to help organizations build a wellness culture that drives results and saves lives. She speaks at conferences, workplaces, K-12 schools, and universities, delivering impactful presentations that inspire change and promote mental health awareness.
AnneMoss does this work in memory of her son, Charles, who struggled with anxiety, depression, and addiction, and died by suicide at age 20 in 2015.
This is a really good incentive Anne. I only have experience of running engineering courses at universities and it is amazing how isolated students can be now that the majority of their work is computer based. Other people just do not realise how lonely a student can feel within a cohort of 50 other students. The other thing I have noticed with students is the end of their course can be like walking off of a cliff edge. One moment they are working at a very intensive level on completing projects and exams and then all that suddenly ends. I have often seen students students still walking around the campus weeks after their course has finished as they just do not no what to do now. It is a massive emotional drop for them which can trigger a variety of problems for a number of students.
Thank you so much for that observation! Since I am not always on campus this helps a lot.