Jan. 2025 Department Debrief: Suicide Prevention and REACH

January 14, 2025

Suicide Prevention and REACH

To contact the Suicide Prevention team: Email suicideprevention@osu.edu, call 614-688-5829, or visit their website.

If you or a loved one is struggling: It is okay to ask for help. For immediate mental health crisis assistance, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, the Ohio State University Police Department or Counseling and Consultation Services. To learn more about suicide prevention, contact OSUSPP or Counseling and Consultation Services.

Department Debrief is a monthly article from the Parent and Family Relations office dedicated to helping family members and supporters better understand the services, opportunities and support offered by particular offices for students.

This month, our team met with members of Ohio State’s Suicide Prevention Program (OSUSPP), an initiative working to create a systematic, inclusive, diverse and coordinated effort that educates and advocates for suicide prevention to be seen as a shared campus responsibility.

1. The Notre Dame versus Ohio State Football Playoff National Championship is fast approaching, but Ryan Day said he will bench Jack Sawyer if you don’t explain what the REACH and Suicide Prevention Programs at Ohio State do. What would your 30-second elevator pitch be?

Laura Lewis, the Assistant Director of the Suicide Prevention Program (OSUSPP) at Ohio State, said benching Sawyer is not an option.

“REACH is considered our flagship program, [but] there is a lot that our Suicide Prevention Program does,” Lewis said. “REACH is a 90-minute certificate experience of learning how to recognize the signs and symptoms that somebody may be in distress.”

REACH stands for recognizing warning signs, engaging with empathy, asking directly about suicide, communicating hope and helping suicidal individuals access care and treatment, Lewis said. It is known as the Ohio State suicide prevention gatekeeper training program designed to help the community prevent suicide by teaching the risks, warning signs and intervention strategies associated with it.

“It’s an in-person experience, we only do it in-person for a number of reasons, primarily safety and ethical considerations,” Lewis said. “It is for faculty, staff and students, so anybody can go through it.”

The goal, Lewis said, is to empower people to reach out by making sure others have the skills and language necessary to get someone the help they may need.

Topics discussed at previous gatekeeper — a term used to describe those that have completed REACH training — trainings include suicide statistics, stories surround suicide, interactive dialogue and role plays to engage with the material, according to OSUSPP’s website.

Gatekeeper training has existed at Ohio State since 2006 after the university received funding through the Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Program created in 2004 after Sen. Gordon Smith’s son passed away by suicide and the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act was created — the first national youth suicide prevention grant that authorized $82 million over three years.

The funding has been used to support a comprehensive suicide prevention effort around campus, with the goal of developing a suicide prevention gatekeeper training to increase knowledge of suicide risk factors, imminent warning signs, prevention strategies and referral resources, according to OSUSPP’s website.

Ohio State’s gatekeeper training — formally referred to as the Question, Persuade and Respond training — was switched to a peer-to-peer education model in 2013, now known as the REACH Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training.

Those looking to become a gatekeeper can pre-register to attend an Open REACH Training on their website or request a Group REACH Training, where the date, time and location on campus is chosen by you and OSUSPP matches you with a trainer based on availability.

“We train our trainers to be in front of audiences that match them,” Lewis said, “We have a group of 30 undergraduate students that apply, we select them and we train them to do REACH trainings across campus for their fellow undergraduates.”

Lewis said OSUSPP also has 55 staff, faculty and graduate and professional trainers, who are retrained annually in the fall.

With over 29,000 gatekeepers trained, REACH has become a signature program for Suicide Prevention, Lewis said.

OSUSPP works to be a comprehensive suicide prevention model by combining different focuses that address different aspects of the problem to create a campus approach to prevention and promotion. In 2018, OSUSPP created the Pillars of a Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Program, which includes advocacy, infrastructure, screening, partnership, leadership, education, policy, student leadership and opportunities for collaboration.

“That education component is really key, but there are other things that need to be happening as well,” Lewis said, “What we’ve done is we’ve identified the best possible way anyone could do this on their college campus.”

OSUSPP is the largest suicide prevention program in the country, Lewis said.

“We are really unique in what we are doing, but we’re also leading the way for other universities and colleges,” Lewis said. “Those pillars give us a way to teach people what we’ve learned and make some suggestions and recommendations on how they too can conceptualize a comprehensive model on their campus."

REACH can also be licensed out by other universities to be brought to their campus as a curriculum, Lewis said.

“We’ll actually fly out, or drive out to that campus, and spend two to three days with them and their campus stakeholders and actually walk them through all of this,” Lewis said. “We’re actually presenting in April at the American Association of Suicidology Conference, which happens to be in Columbus this year.

2. An important aspect of suicide prevention is this idea of stigma around mental health. How can this mental health stigma be approached or changed?

“We’re now serving and supporting and taking care of a generation on our campus that gets the importance of having this conversation, is more inclined not to harbor self-stigma and to open up those doorways and pathways,” Lewis said.

Lewis said some still hold the belief that asking for help makes them feel weak or incapable.

Receiving help, however, is never a flaw. Instead, it is a strength.

“[Stigma] is a big beast to tackle, and we’re doing better at it,” Lewis said. “The number one reason why people don’t get help is that stigma, so we would be remiss if a lot of [OSUSPP’s] energy didn’t go into that.”

RUOK? Day — an annual signature event held at Ohio State to increase awareness among the community about suicide, reduce mental health stigma and connect the campus community with resources on and around campus — is just one example of OSUSPP’s efforts to reduce mental health stigmas.

RUOK? — which stands for resources in the community, university offices and resources, student organizations, knowledge and asking difficult questions — is designed to increase awareness, break down stigmas and provide Ohio State’s community with the knowledge needed to take care of each other when it comes to suicide prevention, according to OSUSPP’s website.

This year, RUOK? Day will take place on February 26th from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Performance Hall of the Ohio Union.

3. How can parents and families become involved with REACH or OSUSPP?

Lewis said she emphasizes that OSUSPP is not a crisis intervention program, but a preventative-focused one.

“We are always going to get people the access to care they need and follow our protocols for that, but we are not a center that is doing that intervention,” Lewis said. “We are more on the education side.”

For those looking for immediate crisis intervention assistance, they can connect to Counseling and Consultation Services, Ohio State Police or call, text or chat the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Lewis said the Ohio State police are aware of how to respond to mental crisis situations.

“Parents, if they are worried, can do one of two things: they can call the police and request a wellness check or call Counseling and Consultation Services and express their concern,” Lewis said.

For non-crisis related assistance, Lewis said parents and families can participate in year-round events, such as OSUSPP’s Out of the Darkness Campus Walk — a collaborative event with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to acknowledge the ways suicide and mental illness have affected our lives or our loved ones — held on April 10, 2025 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the RPAC and The Oval.

“It’s a way to gather out community to spread this message of hope and healing,” Lewis said. “It is a powerful night, and we have had parents sign up with their children, roommates or in teams.”

Lewis also said OSUSPP is working on a REACH training with Parent and Family Relations for parents at the end of March.

“It is something I’ve wanted to do for many years, and we’re launching that concept and hoping to get parents involved in REACH trainings when they’re physically here on campus,” Lewis said.

Beyond an in-person training, Lewis said OSUSPP is also working on a curriculum that can be shared with parents and families that are not physically here on campus.

“So, we can get that information into people’s hands and help parents to increase their own skills around this,” Lewis said. “It’s not a REACH training, but it’s going to be a really helpful experience.”

On March 30, 2025, REACH is partnering with Parent and Family Relations the day following Sibs, Kids and Family Day to provide a training opportunity to families attending the event. Held at the Ohio Union from 1:00-2:30 p.m. in the Ohio Staters, Inc. Traditions Room, parents and family members who are interested in becoming a gatekeeper can register online.

4. If you could offer one word of advice to parents, families and/or students at Ohio State, what would you say?

“I think it would be that suicide prevention is everybody’s business,” Lewis said. “Everybody has a role to play, including parents, and when we say [OSUSPP] is about creating a campus culture of care, that includes families and parents.”

Lewis said she would tell everyone that they can make a difference, no matter the role they play, and OSUSPP and REACH are here to help create confidence in that.

Brooke Tacsar
Student Assistant
Parent and Family Relations