University of Jamestown partners with ND Cares to help prevent veteran suicides

Nov. 14—Editor's note: If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

JAMESTOWN — The University of Jamestown is partnering with the Governor's Challenge to help prevent veteran suicides.

The initiative is facilitated through the North Dakota Cares Program and is dedicated to preventing suicide among service members, veterans and their families.

North Dakota Cares and the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve recognized the university's efforts with a declaration signing ceremony.

"I am so incredibly proud of this university and what is happening today in our support of North Dakota Cares and our support of veterans who have served our country and have given us an opportunity to do what we do here at the University of Jamestown," said Polly Peterson, UJ president.

The university's Master of Clinical Counseling Program began its partnership with North Dakota Cares in February. The partnership focused on delivering counseling on access to lethal means (CALM). CALM training reduces access to methods used in suicide. To date, this initiative has trained over 100 individuals, with UJ's Master of Clinical Counseling Program awarding more than 90 continuing education units to licensed professionals, including counselors, addiction specialists and social workers.

The Governor's Challenge emphasizes identifying individuals at risk, promoting connectedness and care transitions and enhancing safety planning. UJ plans to expand this initiative further in 2025, offering new training focused on safety planning, reinforcing its commitment to serving those who have served the nation.

Elsie Motter, director of clinical counseling and behavioral health at UJ, said counselors are advocates within their communities.

"We identify areas where we can improve services for the community and to improve barriers for accessing services in our efforts to enhance social change," she said.

Motter said partnering with North Dakota Cares and offering the CALM training at UJ aligned with her vision for the Master of Clinical Counseling Program.

"Within three months, we provided our first training to over 60 people," she said. "Our program has now become approved providers for the North Dakota Board of Addiction Counseling Examiners, the North Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners, and the CALM training was approved by the North Dakota Board of Counselor Examiners.

"So this means that as an agency, we can provide clinical training and that all counselors who attend can receive CEUs (continuing education units)," she said. "That not only makes the training more appealing to administrators who have to send their clinicians to training because it's free, it increases the amount of people that attend the training, which then increases the scope of the people who receive the training."

She said CALM training is a two-hour workshop that includes learning and understanding how to have difficult conversations when a person is suicidal, identifying what means the person would use and having conversations to remove those lethal means.

"So that may be like having a safe place where they can secure their guns, a safe place where they can go to so that they don't have that access in the moment when their emotions are high," Motter said.

North Dakota Cares is a coalition of individuals, agencies, organizations, counties, cities and businesses across North Dakota with a goal to support servicemembers, veterans and their families, said Cynthia Whitesell, co-chair of North Dakota Cares.

"Some of the things that we do on a regular recruiting basis is work together to identify gaps in service, look for ways to improve services," she said. " ... One of our biggest initiatives is working with the Governor's Challenge to reduce suicides among service members, veterans and families."

North Dakota Army National Guard Col. Benjamin Cleghorn, chief of staff, said the timing of the partnership is "impeccable" with members of the 817th Engineer Co. (Sapper) from Jamestown returning from their one-year deployment to the southwest border.

"To the men and women that serve in this state on both Army and Air, and those particularly that serve in this great community, to have such a fine institution sign and partner with ND Cares is tremendous," he said.

Cleghorn said it's important that service members, veterans and their families know the university is there to help them when needed.

"The things that a veteran goes through, depending on their tour and what they experience, is very hard for a lot of people to understand," he said.

He said the suicide rate for veterans in the U.S. is "out of control."

"One is too many, but over 6,000 nationwide (per year) is obviously ridiculous," he said.

Rob Keller, vice chair of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, said 56,000 veterans live in North Dakota. He said there are over 50 communities that are "North Dakota Cares communities."

"That means all the businesses in there may have (North Dakota Care community) signs put out there," he said. "That means a lot to a service member who has served because it's not just someone coming up and talking to you, it's being able to see it in a sign that they stand behind that as well too."