Peer Education in Campus Suicide Prevention

Student peer educators have been used by higher education intuitions to influence the education and retention of college students for many years, and most institutions have some type of peer educator program. Newton and Ender (2010) broadly define the role of peer educators as "students who have been selected, trained, and designated by a campus authority to offer educational services to their peers. These services are intentionally designed to assist peers towards attainment of educational goals." Any peer educator program must include purposeful training, as well as clearly defined outcomes and procedures for peer educators. This is especially true for suicide prevention peer educators, as the topic is sensitive and involves the safety of student lives. In this chapter, the history and theories of peer education and the development and implementation of a peer education mental health and suicide prevention program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) are discussed.