The 91̽�� is leading a new, four-year collaboration aimed at promoting mental health and preventing suicide at colleges and universities around the state.

The initiative is a partnership between — an organization in the 91̽��School of Social Work — and the New York-based , which focuses on protecting emotional health and preventing suicide among college students. The effort kicked off May 10 at a Forefront conference in Bellevue, where 12 schools invited to participate met to learn about the program.

“We are working proactively in a very large-scale way to address suicide prevention,” said , Forefront’s co-founder and faculty director.

“By involving colleges and universities around the state, we think we can have a powerful impact in helping to reduce suicides. These campuses can be leaders for the rest of the state.”

The Washington schools — including the UW’s three campuses and most of the state’s other public colleges and universities — are expected to take part in the , which helps schools develop a framework to improve student mental health and prevent suicide and substance abuse. To accomplish this work, schools will establish interdisciplinary teams that include senior administrators and complete a survey at the start of the program, and again after three years, to assess the state of mental health on campus and evaluate their efforts.

The program provides clinicians and advisers that visit the schools and work with them to develop customized strategic plans. The schools will also participate in the , an annual online survey looking at mental health among undergraduate and graduate students.

Each year, around 1,100 undergraduate students in the U.S. die by suicide. Stuber hopes the new Washington initiative can head off some of those tragedies.

“This is truly a prevention story,” said Stuber, an associate professor in the . “It’s about what we can do at the state level to prevent suicide. We want to be able to come back to the legislature and share the great work we’re doing.”

Representatives of participating schools will meet at an annual conference organized by Forefront to share experiences and showcase student-led projects around suicide prevention and mental health awareness.

The partnership was welcome news to Micia Vergara, president of and a 91̽��senior in public health and the Law, Societies & Justice program.

“It’s up to colleges to take a proactive stance, to use the departments and resources and groups on campus to reach out to students,” she said. “I’ve never seen something that’s as broad of an effort before. Seeing this all come together is really cool.”

Including students in the effort, Vergara said, is key.

“Students can bring a fresh perspective,” she said. “It’s not just the researchers who are involved in this advocacy work. It’s definitely the responsibility of students to also translate this for their peers and make it accessible.”

, CEO of the Jed Foundation, said the campus program is focused “way upstream” from suicide prevention, with the goal of identifying students in distress long before they are in crisis. That can be achieved through measures such as having campus health centers screen for anxiety and depression when students come in for the flu, actively promoting counseling center services and training campus security to recognize the signs of a breakdown so they call an ambulance instead of police, he said.

But the factors leading to a suicide attempt are complex and intensely personal. Some students may have undiagnosed mental illnesses, while others may be struggling academically or have strained relationships with their parents. Since colleges’ student populations vary, MacPhee said, it’s important to develop individual plans that meet the needs of each institution.

“It’s not a one size fits all,” he said. “That’s why it can’t be prescriptive. We try to bring a framework, a way of thinking. Bringing people at the school around the table, talking to each other and understanding, can have a very profound effect.”

The statewide initiative is being funded by the Jolene McCaw Family Foundation, which will cover the cost of the study and the schools’ participation in the foundation program. A grant from the federal , in partnership with the Washington State Department of Health, will fund the annual Forefront conference and student showcase.

After her husband ended his life with a bullet in 2011, Jennifer Stuber went to the two Washington stores where he had bought guns to talk with the owners about suicide prevention.

That bold move by , an associate professor at the 91̽�� School of Social Work, eventually led to the passage of a bill signed into state law March 31 by Gov. Jay Inslee. The bill brings together two unlikely partners — the firearms industry and suicide prevention advocates — with pharmacists in an effort to curb suicide deaths.

The was drafted in consultation with the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation, a Washington gun rights group. Alan Gottlieb, the foundation’s executive director, said gun owners and retailers, some of whom have lost loved ones to suicide, have long been concerned about the issue but unsure how to address it.

“None of us know what to look for in warning signs that someone might be in the process of a suicide attempt,” he said. “This legislation is going to be good for our people, because this is information that they need.”

Stuber said the legislation succeeded largely because it involved the firearms industry from the start.

“The paradigm for so long has been one of war on this issue — not around suicide prevention, but gun rights in general,” said Stuber, the co-founder of , an organization based at the 91̽��School of Social Work. “I think a key thing is both sides showed up at the table just being willing to listen.”

The legislation establishes a Forefront-led task force to develop suicide prevention messages and training for gun store owners and pharmacists. The task force will work with groups around the state to integrate suicide prevention education into existing initiatives, such as hunter safety training.

Additionally, a pilot program pairing suicide prevention and gun safety education with the distribution of safe gun storage devices and medication disposal kits will be implemented in two Washington communities with high suicide rates.

Pharmacists will be required to take a six-hour training course as part of their accreditation process, while gun dealers and gun range operators will be offered a voluntary online course. The task force will survey gun retailers to determine what incentives would make them most likely to participate. Gottlieb predicts broad buy-in from the firearms industry.

“I have not spoken to any gun retailer in Washington state that doesn’t want to be a part of this,” he said. “It’s in their interest to do it and they want to do it. People are very hungry for this.”

Nearly 80 percent of firearm deaths in Washington are suicides, and the state’s suicide rate is 14 percent higher than the national average. In 2014, 40 percent of suicides in the state involved firearms, while poisonings from prescription medications and other substances accounted for 19 percent.

Suicide was a risk that never occurred to . Her teenage son, , was a trained marksman who had taken the state’s hunter safety class and attended summer gun camps. Gilligan and her son went skeet shooting every week near their home on Vashon Island, and Palmer, as he was known, had been mentored by family members and friends who put a high priority on gun safety. Palmer’s uncle once commented to Gilligan, “Palmer is safer with a gun than any adult I know.”

But on Oct. 4, 2012, 14-year-old Palmer, upset over a girl, shot himself to death in front of the family’s home using a gun Gilligan had left unlocked. In an impulsive instant, her youngest child — the boy who loved swimming in Puget Sound, the star athlete, the one his friends looked to as a leader — was gone.

“Had I secured that one gun, he might not have done this,” said Gilligan, who moved to West Seattle after her son’s death, finding it too painful to see his friends growing up without him. “That’s part of my horror that I relive.”

Gilligan is now active with Forefront and supports the new legislation. Something as simple as a poster on a wall in a gun store or a conversation with an informed gun range operator, she said, could make a critical difference.

“I firmly believe this is lifesaving information,” she said. “Had that seed been planted with me, I definitely would have been more vigilant.”

Stuber’s husband, a 40-year-old corporate attorney, after struggling for months with depression and severe anxiety. Stuber turned her grief into action, forming Forefront, which has helped pass six suicide prevention laws over four years that require training for medical workers and prevention and response plans in middle and high schools.

A couple of years ago, Stuber began reaching out to firearms retailers and asking them if they worried about the possibility of selling a gun to someone who might be suicidal. Virtually every employee she spoke with, she said, answered yes. With some trepidation, Stuber called the National Rifle Association and Gottlieb’s group to enlist their help in reducing firearm suicides. To her surprise, they were willing to talk, and also listen.

“There’s real hurt,” she said. “Everybody showed up at the table willing to share their pain. This is an issue that impacts all of us.”

Forefront, the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation met with groups including the Seattle Police Department and the Department of Fish and Wildlife over about six months to draft the language for the initiative. Rep. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines, the bill’s main sponsor, was instrumental in getting the legislation passed, Stuber said.

About 20 other states have taken steps to bring together suicide prevention advocates and gun owners, Stuber said, but none of those efforts are as broad as the Washington bill. Gottlieb thinks the initiative could become a successful model that can be replicated in other states.

“Lots of us in the firearms rights community have been concerned that a significant percentage of suicides involve lethal force,” he said. “If there’s a way to lower those numbers, it’s in gun owners’ interest to do that. To me, this is a no-brainer, but it took someone like Jenn to put it together.”

Patty Yamashita was a vivacious, sweet, high-energy woman who balanced a career as an IT manager with a steadfast dedication to her family. She worked long hours but was always home to put dinner on the table and read a bedtime story for her children.

“My mother was my hero,” said her son, David. “Usually a boy or man would say that their father showed them the way in terms of growing up and how to live and how to conduct yourself in the world, but my mom really showed that to me.”

But in July 2014, Patty, who had struggled with mental illness for several years, ended her life by overdosing on prescription medication.

“Never in a million years would we have guessed that she would make the decision she did,” said David, 29.

Patty Yamashita was one of 1,111 Washington residents who died by suicide that year. Nearly 70 percent of suicides in the state involve guns, poisonings and drug overdoses, and suicide prevention experts say many of those deaths happen in homes where guns and medications are not safely stored.

, based at the 91̽�� School of Social Work, is working closely with Rep. Tina Orwall (D-Des Moines) on new legislation aimed at reducing these tragedies. The bill, which has support from gun owners, would engage firearms dealers and pharmacists to raise awareness about suicide and the need to restrict access to guns and prescription drugs for those at risk of attempting to kill themselves.

would:

• Create a Safe Homes Task Force led by the 91̽��School of Social Work that would develop suicide prevention messages and trainings for gun dealers and owners, pharmacy schools and firearm safety educators
• Incorporate suicide prevention messaging into firearm safety brochures and safety training
• Require the state Department of Health to develop a “safe homes partner” certification for firearms dealers and offer tax credits for those who become certified
• Direct the Department of Fish & Wildlife to update safety brochures to include information about suicide awareness and prevention
• Test the effectiveness of combining suicide prevention training and distribution of secure storage devices and medication disposal kits in two Washington communities, one rural and one urban, with high suicide rates

, Forefront’s co-founder and faculty director, said the legislation has support from numerous stakeholders, including the Seattle and King County public health department and the Washington State Pharmacy Association, and was developed in close consultation with the National Rifle Association and the Washington-based Second Amendment Foundation. The buy-in from gun owners, she said, makes this legislation unique.

“Gun owners are excited about the bill, and they want to help with suicide prevention,” said Stuber, an associate professor at the 91̽��School of Social Work. “The suicide prevention movement has needed this so desperately. This is a message that’s coming from the very people it needs to come from.”

Nearly 80 percent of firearm deaths in Washington state are suicides. In 2014, 49 percent of suicides in Washington involved firearms, while poisonings from prescription medications and other substances accounted for 19 percent.

“The consequences of suicide are devastating to families and the figures are alarming,” Orwall said in a release, noting that Washington’s suicide rate is 14 percent higher than the national average.

“But is the nation’s most preventable form of death, and we all have a role in averting it by forming partnerships and working together to raise awareness and limit access to lethal means.”

Stuber, who lost her husband to firearm suicide in 2011, said the legislation is intended to target people at risk of suicide as well as other gun shop and pharmacy customers.

Customers would see educational messages displayed, and employees would be trained to talk with them about suicide risk and the importance of securely storing guns and prescription drugs.

“People think that the big risk of storing firearms safely is about someone breaking into your house and using them to commit crimes,” she said.

“But the very real risk is within your own home. If you’ve got kids in your home, if you’ve got someone who’s depressed in your home, if you’ve got someone who’s depressed visiting your home — those are the kinds of risks that people aren’t aware of.”

The bill, whose companion bill is sponsored by Sen. Joe Fain, R-Auburn, is scheduled to go before the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 26. Forefront has helped support the passage of five other in the past four years that require training for mental health workers, doctors and nurses, and require middle and high schools to implement screening, training and suicide response plans.

Forefront volunteers will be speaking about the legislation at its third annual suicide prevention education day in Olympia on Jan. 25. More than 50 supporters, most of whom have been directly impacted by suicide, are expected to attend. The group will hold a ceremony on the front lawn of the state legislative building at 10:30 a.m. that will feature a temporary memorial with 1,111 mini tombstones representing the Washington residents who died by suicide in 2014.

Patty Yamashita, who loved animals and was a skilled cook and baker, grew up in Seattle’s Rainier Valley. Despite attending community college for just a few semesters, she built a successful career in the tech industry, working for companies including Nintendo and T-Mobile. She juggled work and family with seeming ease, but was an alcoholic who managed to hide her drinking from her family.

In 2009, Patty underwent treatment for alcoholism, and shortly afterward was laid off. Over the next three years, as she applied for job after job, her mental health began to unravel, David said. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression and became increasingly unstable. She was having trouble managing her medications — forgetting them one day, taking a double dosage the next — so David and his father kept them locked up, carefully dispensing her daily dosages.

In early July 2014, David took his mother to a pharmacy to refill her prescriptions, then dropped her off and went golfing. He forgot to lock up her medications, not fully realizing the desperate state his mother was in. By the next morning, Patty lay in a hospital bed, unconscious. She died a day later with her family by her side.

David has been working with Forefront for a year and believes the proposed legislation could save lives by increasing awareness and facilitating conversation about mental illness and suicide.

“I think the stigma around suicide obscures the fact that recovery from mental illness does happen,” he said. “I wish my mom would have lived to know that.”