Mercy University gets $500,000 federal grant for suicide prevention work

Mercy University has secured a four-year, $500,000 SAMHSA grant to expand suicide prevention, mental health education and student support across its three campuses. The funding will help scale the Mercy RISE initiative as the university addresses rising mental health needs among students.

Why it matters: - Mercy University is expanding mental health and suicide prevention services for students across all three campuses. - The federal grant supports earlier identification of students in distress, broader access to behavioral health care and more durable prevention infrastructure. - The effort comes as college student mental health needs remain high nationwide and at Mercy.

What happened: - Mercy University received a $500,000 federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. - The award runs four years and comes through SAMHSA’s Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Program. - The grant funds Mercy RISE, short for Resilience, Intervention, Support and Empowerment. - Mercy RISE is designed to strengthen campus-wide suicide prevention across Mercy’s three campuses.

The details: - Mercy RISE will expand early identification of students needing support. - The initiative will increase access to behavioral health services. - Mercy will use evidence-based prevention strategies and build infrastructure meant to last beyond the grant period. - Colleen Powers, executive director of Health and Wellness at Mercy University, said the award is a significant investment in student health and will help the university build on work already underway through JED Campus and other initiatives. - Mercy’s 2024–2025 Healthy Minds Study found that 62% of students experience symptoms of at least one significant mental health concern. - The same study estimated that about 3,000 students with identified needs are not receiving treatment. - The 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that 33.2% of 18- to 25-year-olds experience mental illness, and 9.4% experience serious mental illness. - Suicide remains a leading cause of death among college and university students in the United States. - Mercy joined JED Campus in 2025 to assess and strengthen mental health, substance misuse and suicide prevention programs. - The university has been working with JED to review existing programs and identify gaps.

Between the lines: - Mercy is building the grant around an existing support network that includes the Counseling Center, CARE Team, Student Health Office and Office of Accessibility. - The university’s goals include strengthening institutional capacity, improving referrals, increasing help-seeking and building sustainable policies and partnerships. - Mercy will work with partners including JED Campus, BetterMynd, Lavender Psychiatry, the Behavioral Health College Partnership, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, NAMI of Westchester and the Jordan Porco Foundation. - The program will train faculty, staff, student leaders and students to spot warning signs and connect peers to help. - Mercy also plans annual behavioral health needs assessments, voluntary behavioral health screening and referrals, crisis response, outreach, stigma reduction and efforts to reduce access to lethal means. - The grant signals a broader shift toward prevention-first campus mental health programs rather than crisis response alone.

What's next: - Mercy will roll out Mercy RISE across its campuses over the four-year grant period. - The university is expected to expand screening, training, referrals and prevention programming as the initiative develops. - Mercy plans to use the grant to create systems that continue after federal funding ends. - More information about Mercy University is available at the university’s website.