This Guide Will Help College Student Leaders:

• Understand why means reduction is an effective suicide prevention strategy on college campuses.
• Start a means restriction task force on their campus.
• Identify practical and achievable interventions for curbing the number of suicide attempts on their campus.

Why Advocate for Means Reduction?

Means restriction: an evidence-based strategy for suicide prevention that involves limiting access to lethal methods of suicide (Nevarez-Flores et al., 2024; Bryan et al., 2011). Examples can include restricting access to firearms, high places, and harmful chemicals.

• This approach recognizes that mental health outcomes are influenced by more than just individual choices—they are shaped by social determinants of health, including safety in physical spaces and built-in campus environments.
• Research highlights that means reduction is one of the few suicide prevention strategies with proven effectiveness. Colleges and universities have critical opportunities to reduce suicide risks through physical changes in the campus environment (American Council on Educaton, 2023).
• Studies have shown that environmental changes focused on means reduction can significantly reduce suicide rates (Cimini & Rivero, 2018).
• Most suicidal crises are brief, and 93% of attempt survivors do not die by suicide later (Owens, 2002). Restricting lethal means increases the chance of long-term survival.

How to Get Started

1. Create a Task Force

A task force is a valuable addition to the campus community because it can facilitate collective planning to reduce means of suicide. Task force representatives should include a variety of campus constituents and stakeholders, including faculty, staff, and students, who work collaboratively toward a common goal. Some suggestions for representatives are:

1. • • Student Health/ Medical Clinic
     • Counseling Center Staff
     • Health Promotion and Wellness Services
     • Student Government
     • Active Minds Chapter
     • Campus Maintenance and Building Staff
     • Campus Safety/Emergency Management or Campus Police
     • Faculty (especially from a department like Chemistry or Pharmacy if you are focusing on securing chemicals)
     • Residence Life/Housing
     • Dean of Students or the Vice President of Student Affairs
     • Assistant Vice President of Health & Wellness (if applicable)
2. Inventory Means on Campus

To reduce access to means on campus, it’s important to determine what means already exist, as well as the quantity and location of those means. School officials may also want to collect and present data about the most common means used by students who make a suicide attempt. This way, they can identify and focus on the most common and lethal means. To determine if previous data on lethal means exists, consider contacting Student Safety or Emergency Services.

Example Inventory

3. Choose which Means Reduction Interventions to Focus On

Once the information referred to above is collected, the Task Force can evaluate which lethal means your campus needs to focus on and choose which interventions your task force is going to work to establish. When making this decision some factors to consider would be if there is a means that is most pressing to address, the feasibility of addressing that specific means, and the technical and financial resources required to do so.

Common Interventions for Reducing Access to Suicide Means

Below are several common means reduction interventions that have been employed by campuses. Keep in mind that focusing on the most lethal methods of suicide can have the greatest impact on reducing suicide rates overall.

1. Restrict Firearms

Firearms are the most lethal and common means of death by suicide in the United States. If your campus allows firearms on campus, we recommend this be the first issue you tackle.

The rules regarding guns on college campuses vary depending on state laws and institutional policies. In certain states, laws have been passed that either allow or require public institutions to permit concealed carry of firearms on campus. However, the specifics of the laws can vary, such as whether guns can be carried in certain areas. Find out more about your state’s firearm policies and how they affect your campus on Everytown’s Website.

In states where public institutions are required to allow concealed carry of firearms or on campuses with cultures where gun ownership is the norm, you may have to get more creative and focus on gun restriction instead of prohibition. Here are some ideas:

Gun-Free Zones: Despite the allowance of guns in some states, many campuses still maintain areas that are considered “gun-free zones,” such as in classrooms, residence halls, or sporting arenas, even in states where concealed carry is allowed.

Firearm Locker Programs: In these programs, students are required to store their firearms with campus police or security in a secured locker instead of bringing them into residence halls or commuter student spaces. To retrieve the firearm for hunting or at the end of the term, students must put in an advance request and wait for a specified period before they can pick up the weapon.

Create Formal Agreements with Local Gun Stores/Ranges: To ensure student health and safety, these businesses can notify the campus if a student of concern has visited and/or bought a firearm. Although these establishments may uphold a citizen’s right to bear arms, most (if not all) would like to help prevent deaths by suicide. In some states, gun stores work directly with state public health teams to support these efforts.

Connect with Statewide Programs: Collaboration with community programs ensures that students in higher education institutions across the state are reached, supported, and educated on lethal means safety. Harvard University’s Means Matters provides a comprehensive list of state-level lethal means safety initiatives organized by state.

• Ex: The Armory Project, Louisiana = a partnership with firearm dealers to raise awareness about the problem of firearm suicide and promote secure firearm storage to prevent suicide
• Ex: Life Side Ohio = campaign of direct, suicide prevention outreach dedicated to the firearms community
• Ex: New Hampshire Firearm Safety Coalition = brings together individuals and organizations with a broad range of views on gun ownership who share a concern with safety and preventing suicide

Note: Campuses have used these strategies for other types of weapons, objects, tools, or devices that can be used to inflict harm such as ceremonial swords, large knives, and others.

2. Lock and/or Alarm Certain Doors

Restricting access to heights may also be an effective way to curb suicide attempts on campus. Effective ways to prevent suicide include:

• Alarming or locking rooftop doors
• Ensuring windows do not open beyond a specified amount
• Barring access to on-campus balconies

3. Place Barriers in High Places

Some schools have created barriers including but not limited to nets, fences, or Plexiglas walls along high places. This is especially useful on campuses with bridges, multi-level atriums, towers and other accessible, elevated areas.

4. Lock and Monitor Chemicals

Campuses should regularly check and secure chemicals stored and used in chemistry labs, dentistry and medical schools, janitorial closets, and other spaces.

For example, chemistry departments should take regular inventories of chemicals, ration chemicals to students based on the method they’ve written up for their experiments, and limit access to only necessary materials.

5. Connect with Local Emergency Departments

Campus police and emergency departments should already have this in place, but if not, should create protocols for transporting, receiving, and releasing students in mental health crises and those who have attempted suicide. Communication is critical to ensure that students in crisis do not retain access to means. Support people should also receive adequate information on how they can help reduce access to suicide means. Consider contacting your campus police department to learn more about their specific policies regarding students in mental health crises.

6. Limit Prescription Supply

For individuals at risk, it may be best for a medical professional or family member to track their prescription supplies. For example, health centers and local hospitals might implement protocols ensuring that a student at risk receives only a 7- or 10-day supply of medication, instead of a 30- or 90-day supply. This could reduce the likelihood of overdose.

7. Increase Protective Factors

Protective factors are actions and measures taken to help prevent individuals from reaching a crisis state. Continue fostering protective factors on campus by:

• Screening for mental health and substance use disorders
• Increasing access to counseling centers
• Setting up Good Samaritan policies to encourage reports of substance abuse and self-harm
• Combating prejudice and bias against students with mental health difficulties through education and compassion

Additional Means Reduction Resources

To help further inform your advocacy, read more below about means reduction as a suicide prevention strategy.

Harvard Injury Control Research Center’s Means Matter Campaign

The Means Matter Campaign, part of Harvard’s Injury Control Research Center, emphasizes that while reducing suicidal intent is critical, limiting access to means is equally important.

Visit the Means Matter Campaign for more information.

Suicide Prevention Resource Center: Reduce Access to Means of Suicide

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) emphasizes that restricting access to means, along with other evidence-based interventions, plays a key role in reducing suicide rates.

Visit the full resource here.

CALM: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means

CALM is a free, practical intervention to increase the time and distance between individuals at risk of suicide and the most common and lethal methods of suicide, particularly firearms. The oldest and most widely-used training on lethal means safety, CALM teaches why means matter and equips individuals with tools to intervene effectively with those at risk for suicide both upstream–before a crisis hits–as well as in times of crisis.

Visit this resource here.
And the specific CALM resource here.