ALBANY, N.Y. — The State University of New York and the NYS Office of Mental Health launched a crisis text line and training initiative on Wednesday to assist students, faculty and staff during the coronavirus pandemic.
The crisis text line was designed to help promote mental health awareness, ease stress and anxiety, and to help identify and support individuals at risk of suicide. Members of the SUNY community can access the confidential text line 24/7 by texting Got5U to 741-741 for help.
SUNY says the text line provides individuals with a way to talk about substance use, relationship issues, domestic violence, and school stressors, as well stress and anxiety related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Slowing the spread of COVID-19 has called for a series of sudden shifts to how we live, work, study, and interact,” said SUNY Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson. “Though this transition is necessary to keep people safe, there may be an unintended, psychological impact of these changes on many of our students, faculty, and staff. We thank the New York State Office of Mental Health for their partnership in providing these resources to our SUNY family.
SUNY is also offering online question, persuade, refer (QPR) training, which is designed to teach participants how to recognize someone who may be in emotional distress or having suicidal thoughts. QPR training also teaches participants how to appropriately engage and connect that person to resources that can help.
Members of the SUNY community can register for QPR training by clicking here and entering “SUNY” as the organizational code.”
More information about these resources can be found at SUNY's new mental health resource page here.
