The Ohio State Suicide Prevention Program offers REACH suicide prevention training year-round to university students, staff and faculty. Credit: Courtesy of Laura Lewis

As National Suicide Prevention Week comes to a close, Ohio State’s REACH movement is refusing to let its suicide prevention training efforts be limited to a mere seven days.

REACH has served as the training program created and administered by Ohio State’s Suicide Prevention Program since 2013, Laura Lewis, the program’s assistant director, said. Despite the immense impact the 90-minute training sessions can have on the Ohio State community, Lewis said REACH often goes unnoticed due to lingering stigma surrounding mental health and the sometimes overwhelming amount of mental health resources offered on campus.

“The REACH training, quite frankly, is as important as a diploma,” Lewis said. “I don’t know anyone who should graduate from this university without having been given the opportunity to go through that. This is not just a resume builder. This is a life builder.”

Penellope Kern, a third-year in accounting and Spanish, said Peers REACHing Out — also known as PROs — is an undergraduate student professional cohort of the program that is responsible for administering REACH training to various student groups across campus. As a PROs member, Kern said she witnesses firsthand how unaware people still are about suicide’s prevalence when conducting training sessions.

“I usually like giving the first half of our presentations, and the first half is heavily quantitative; it’s mostly statistical data about suicide,” Kern said. “The looks on people’s faces — It’s kind of crazy. It’s like they didn’t realize how close it was. I don’t think they understood how impactful it is.”

According to the program’s website, REACH is an acronym that represents the five central strategies taught to trainees undergoing the program, the first of which is “Recognize warning signs.” Lewis said the training begins with this concept, as it is often the one with which people feel least comfortable.

“Knowing the signs, recognizing the signs can feel intimidating, especially because sometimes we don’t see the signs and they’re actually there,” Lewis said. “And then that makes it feel even further like we don’t know how to reach out or we can’t make a difference.”

Melanie Bozzay, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health and a collaborator with Ohio State suicide prevention group STRIVE, agreed and said such intimidation may deter people from partaking in related training sessions.

“There’s something just very, very scary about, well, ‘What if this person in front of me is having these thoughts about ending their life? And then what do I do if they are?’” Bozzay said. “And I’ve found that it can often be kind of an involuntary, just very strong kind of anxious response.”

Lewis, also a licensed professional clinical counselor, said she adamantly encourages the Ohio State community to receive REACH training, though the prevention program will never require it for graduation because of its potential to harm individuals who may be triggered by the content.

“While we would like everybody to do it, and we would advocate for that — like it’d be great if everybody at Ohio State did it — we allow people to choose the right moment for them so that training will be helpful to them and not hurtful,” Lewis said.

Prior to the pandemic, Lewis said roughly 100-125 REACH sessions were conducted per semester, which equates to about 2,500 students, staff and faculty members who received the training. Though measuring the effectiveness of suicide prevention training is difficult, Lewis said these data establish the principle that “we’re saving more lives than we’re losing.”

“We never measure the success of suicide prevention efforts by losses,” Lewis said. “We can look at contextualized statistics for loss. What we can’t, are the people who have chosen not to take their life because they were impacted by someone who reached out to them. We don’t know those numbers.”

Kern said she hopes the Ohio State community will continue to spread awareness about suicide prevention after this week ends, and discuss box checking, which she said is the harmful process by which people promote a cause simply to say they have, much like performative activism.

“How are you going to make a difference other than just posting on your social media?” Kern said. “I think a lot of it is like, ‘Oh, let me just, you know, I’ll wear my suicide bracelet this week, and then we’ll kind of just not talk about our feelings ever again.’” 

Bozzay said she hopes members of the Ohio State community will seek out REACH training even if they have feelings of nervousness or discomfort, as the sessions are designed to accommodate such feelings.

“I sometimes say that if you don’t have a feeling of anxiety around the topic of suicide, maybe you don’t have a pulse,” Bozzay said. “It’s always worth a try.”

Students, staff and faculty can visit the program’s website for more information about the prevention program, the REACH training program or to submit a REACH training request. 

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts or ideation, there are resources available.

Hotlines:

  • National Suicide Prevention 24/7 Lifeline: 800-273-8255
  • Columbus Suicide 24/7 Hotline: 614-221-5445
  • The Trevor Project 24/7 LGBTQ Suicide Hotline: 866-488-7386
  • Ohio State Counseling and Consultation Services After Hours: 614-292-5766, option 2

Text Lines:

  • National 24/7 Crisis Text Line: Text “HOME” to 741-741
  • Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services 24/7 Crisis Text Line: Text “4HOPE” to 741-741
  • The Trevor Project LGBTQ Suicide Prevention 24/7 Text Line: Text “START” to 678-678

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