$335K Florida Blue Foundation Grant for a School Toolkit to Prevent Suicide

 

Scott Poland, Ed.D. is a Professor in NSU’s College of Psychology and the Director of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office (SVP). His $335,000 Florida Blue Foundation-funded grant is titled “STEPS (School Toolkit for K-12 Educators to Prevent Suicide).”

 

Tell me about your recent grant-funded project.

This Florida Blue grant will provide funding to train 500 school administrators and mental health professionals per year for the next three years using a toolkit to prevent suicide. These individuals will receive a hard copy of STEPS which is divided into three main sections, prevention, intervention and postvention. STEPS is based on 40 years of working on suicide prevention in schools and has 32 tools for schools to use in their important suicide prevention work.

This grant started in January 2022 and myself and Dr. Hubbard, the Assistance Director of SVP, have already trained 265 school psychologists in Hillsborough County and 175 school psychologists in Palm Beach County. The next phase is to train as many as 500 school administrators and psychologists in Dade County. For the third part of this grant, we will form a Parent Advisory Group to get parents more involved in suicide prevention.

Through this grant we’ve created a tangible product that can be used by every K-12 school public or private in the state of Florida. This binder of resources is user friendly, and new information about suicide prevention will be added to the electronic version of STEPS available at www.nova.edu/suicideprevention. STEPS also has a Q&A section that addresses difficult questions parents and educators have asked. Everything included in the STEPS is intended to enhance existing suicide prevention plans within schools.

 

Who is working with you on this project? What expertise do you each bring?

I am leading this project along with Dr. Hubbard and graduate students who assist me. I have a great level of expertise in this area as I have consulted on multiple legal cases involving suicide in schools and I have presented around the country on youth suicide prevention. I also spent 26 years working in various school districts and have co-authored and authored six books on suicide prevention.

 

How does this grant intersect with your work at NSU?

The Suicide and Violence Prevention Office has provided hundreds of presentations on campus and throughout Broward County. Two recent examples are training for every new student in the College of Psychology and every new first-year Osteopathic Medical student. SVP also created a suicide prevention awareness training video that is viewed by every new employee. The STEPS grant allows us to reach more educators in Florida.

 

What advice do you have for other grant seekers at NSU?

 Find something that you’re very passionate about; it makes the process of writing a grant less daunting. Take advantage of the resources NSU offers, such as the individuals in the Division of Research and grants offices. Finally, don’t give up. I didn’t receive this grant the first time I applied.