Background:

Public secondary schools are required to have crisis plans that include suicide prevention. Post secondary institutions are not statutorily required to have suicide prevention plans, but many institutions have initiatives focused on addressing behavioral health and suicide prevention on their campuses.

In 2015, the Legislature created the Task Force on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention at the Higher Education Institutions (Task Force) to determine what policies, resources, and technical assistance are needed to support the institutions in improving access to mental health services and improving suicide prevention responses. Members of the Task Force included, among others, the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC), the Council of Presidents, the institutions of higher education, the Independent Colleges of Washington, the Department of Veteran Affairs, and the Department of Health (DOH). Forefront at the University of Washington staffed the Task Force.

At the end of 2016, the Task Force reported its findings and provided recommendations to the Legislature regarding resources and technical assistance needed at the institutions. The Task Force is set to expire July 1, 2017.

Summary of Bill:

Statewide resource.

Subject to funds appropriated, the DOH must collaborate with the WSAC to develop a statewide resource for behavioral health and suicide prevention for the state's post secondary institutions. The DOH must contract with an entity that has suicide prevention expertise, which will be responsible for constructing and hosting the statewide resource and linking the resource to the WSAC and DOH web sites.

At a minimum, the statewide resource must:

be made publicly available through a web-based portal or a support line;
provide a free curriculum to train faculty, staff, and students in suicide recognition and referral skills;
provide a free curriculum for institutions to train others to deliver trainings in person;
contain model crisis protocols, per sector, that include behavioral health and suicide identification, intervention, reentry, and postvention;
contain model marketing materials and messages that promote student behavioral health;
develop capacity for an annual conference for institutions (the contracting entity is responsible for hosting the first conference); and
include resources that serve diverse communities and under-represented populations.

To establish the components of the statewide resource, the DOH must work with the Task Force and entities or persons that include the following:

representation from a tribal college;
representation from a veterans training support center;
representation from students and families;
representatives selected by the Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee;
representation from a community behavioral health provider;
a suicide prevention expert; and
three institutional counseling center directors or executive directors, one from a public four-year institution, one from a private nonprofit institution, and one from a community and technical college.

The statewide resource must be available to post secondary institutions by June 30, 2019.

Grant program.

Subject to funds appropriated, the Suicide Prevention in Higher Education grant program is created to provide funding for post secondary institutions to develop basic infrastructure and strategic plans supporting behavioral health and suicide prevention. Development of basic infrastructure and strategic plans include creating partnerships with state agencies and community organizations such as community crisis clinics.

"Post secondary institutions" includes the public two-year and four-year institutions of higher education, degree-granting institutions, private vocational schools, and cosmetology and barber schools.

The WSAC must administer the grant program, in collaboration with the Task Force. The grant program must be implemented by August 1, 2018.

Data collection.

For the purposes of establishing a baseline for behavioral health concerns and responses, post secondary institutions must submit annual reports to the DOH beginning June 1, 2018 and ending in 2021. The report must include certain information in compliance with the DOH's data collection requirements, and must indicate whether the institution does not collect or have access to the specified information.

The reports must include the following information:

the awareness of students, faculty, and staff about behavioral health and suicide prevention resources;
the institution's counselor-to-student ratio;
the number of students referred to off-campus behavioral health providers;
the number of students identifying emotional distress as reasons for withdrawal;
the number of student suicide deaths;
the number of student suicide attempts resulting in hospitalization;
information about dissemination of material to students about on and off campus resources;
confirmation of campus plans identifying the groups already receiving training and groups who will receive training in the future;
the entity on campus that develops and maintains the campus crisis plan; and
the point person responsible for the crisis plan.

The reporting requirement applies to the same institutions eligible for the grant program.

The DOH must aggregate the information received by sector and serve as the depository for the annual reports. The DOH must collaborate with post secondary institutions in establishing data collection requirements and criteria.

The expiration date of the Task Force is repealed.