Touchstone

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About Touchstone

The Touchstone Project provides training, education, referral, web-based assessment and suicide prevention services for all 11,000 students of the University of Maine. Our mission is to engage at-risk students, reduce barriers to services, facilitate access to mental health and other university resources and promote help-seeking behavior.

Primary goals include:

Training ten percent of faculty and staff as “gatekeepers” capable of identifying, intervening and referring at-risk students to professional health care providers and other university resources.
Selecting a group of students to participate in a class and receive training to become Touchstone Peers, which works to decrease stigma associated with mental illness and seeking help and increases student engagement.
Integrating web-based technology and electronic communication as a means to lower barriers and promote access to mental health services and information.

When building the Touchstone Suicide Prevention Program (TSPP), we took into account that students who are engaged are less likely to attempt or die by suicide than those who are isolated and marginalized. Therefore, the TSPP integrates crisis intervention with efforts to engage students who would not otherwise be reached.

For More Information please visit:
Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)

Contact Information:
Douglas P. Johnson Ph.D.
Project Director
Director of the Counseling Center and Peer Education Program
University of Maine
5721 Cutler Health Building
Orono, ME 04469
Tel: 207.581.1392
Email: Doug.Johnson@umit.maine.edu

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