A College Suicide Prevention Model for American Indian Students

College student suicide prevention efforts are important to campus administrators and mental health professionals due to increasing concerns about managing suicidal students. This article describes the development and preliminary effectiveness of a campus suicide prevention program designed for American Indian (AI) students who are at higher risk for suicide compared with the general population. Using the medicine wheel as a guiding framework, the current prevention model integrates communication links between AI tribes and prevention program staff, educational and cultural programming, and spiritual ceremonies with the larger campus mental health resources available to students. A discussion of the barriers faced and solutions generated for implementing the program is offered, along with suggestions for disseminating this AI-specific prevention program to other universities.