Active Minds, Crisis Text Line, and The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Launch Campaign to Include Crisis Numbers on Student ID Cards
WASHINGTON DC, January 29, 2019 – Active Minds, Crisis Text Line, and The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline today launched the first campaign to support high schools, colleges, and universities in their efforts to add mental health and suicide prevention crisis numbers to student ID cards.
The three prominent mental health organizations jointly developed the new resource, called Transform Your Campus: ID Cards Campaign, to provide students with ideas and action steps on how to lobby school administrators and other policymakers to make hotlines such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Crisis Text Line readily accessible on student identification cards.
The idea for the project began as early as 2012, when Active Minds students at the University of Dayton successfully petitioned campus administrators to print a crisis call line on the back of all student identification cards. In the last year, legislators in California successfully passed State Senate Bill 972, requiring the addition of crisis numbers to ID cards in schools across the state.
“No campus is immune to mental health issues,” says Alison Malmon, founder and executive director of Active Minds. “Any student who has received a late-night, concerning text from a friend knows we can’t predict when we might need to provide or seek help. That’s why this partnership effort between Active Minds, Crisis Text Line, and the Lifeline is so important. Each student ID card should have crisis information printed on the back so if someone needs help, they only have to look as far as their pocket.”
Transform Your Campus: ID Cards Campaign is part of a six-part series of free online resources. Each campaign guide provides practical, proven advice on how students can serve as a catalyst for changes that better support mental health. Students have used the guides to successfully advocate for including mental health in new student freshman orientations, for example, and to hire more counseling staff.
To date, more than 235 campuses have participated in Transform Your Campus initiatives. More than 60 campuses have so far successfully changed their policies and/or systems as a result of the program, including at least 22 campuses which updated their student identification cards. In total, these policy changes now impact approximately 892,960 enrolled students.
Transform Your Campus was funded through a generous grant from the Peg’s Foundation. It was developed through advice and insight from students, researchers, and administrators at The Healthy Minds Network, Ohio State University, Cornell University, Washington Adventist University, The George Washington University, Cabrini College, Georgetown University, Tufts University, Hamilton College, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Penn State, the University of Maryland, The College of Old Westbury, University of California at Riverside, Oberlin College, and Northwestern University.
Learn more and download the Transform Your Campus: ID Cards Campaign at activeminds.org/idcards.
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About Active Minds
Active Minds is the nation’s premier nonprofit organization supporting mental health awareness and education for students. A recent landmark study by the RAND Corporation confirms that Active Minds has a significant, positive impact on student health and well-being by creating a supportive climate for mental health on college campuses. Active Minds is powered by a vibrant network of campus chapters located at more than 450 colleges, universities, and high schools nationwide. The organization is dedicated to supporting a new generation in ending the silence and changing the conversation about mental health for everyone.
About Crisis Text Line
Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7, confidential support for people in crisis via text. Text 741741 to be connected to a live, trained Crisis Counselor. Learn more about the nonprofit organization, including how to receive training to become a volunteer Crisis Counselor at crisistextline.org.
About The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the United States. The Lifeline is funded by SAMHSA and administered by Vibrant Emotional Health. If you are in crisis, call 1-800-273-8255 or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
For more information, please contact:
Angela Gillis | Active Minds
angela@activeminds.org | 202.332.9595, ext. 119
Ashley Womble | Crisis Text Line
awomble@crisistextline.org
Frances Gonzalez | The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
fgonzalez@vibrant.org | 212.614.5765
Active Minds is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization promoting mental health awareness and education for young adults.