Members of the public, health care and education professionals are invited to attend a state-wide summit on suicide prevention at Montana State University, Feb. 1-2.

To register and for a complete agenda, visit www.montana.edu/suicidesummit or call the MSU Office of the Dean of Students at (406) 994-2826. The summit is free and open to the public, but organizers ask participants to register for meal counts. The summit is organized by the Montana University System and will feature breakout workshops for university students, faculty and staff, mental health practitioners, members of the public and elected officials.Keynote speakers include:Nance Roy, assistant clinical professor, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine; and clinical director of the JED Foundation, the leading nonprofit organization addressing issues related to mental health and suicide in the college population.

During her keynote, Roy will speak on emotional well-being, suicide prevention, and substance abuse prevention, and the role of data in achieving public health goals. Ben Locke, associate director of clinical services at Penn State University; the founder and executive director of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health, CCMH, and faculty in the counseling and clinical psychology departments at Penn State University. Locke will examine the topic of suicide prevention in higher education from the perspective of university/college counseling centers and the students they serve. Using recently published five-year trend results from the CCMH, Locke will review trends in college student mental health, explore contributing factors, and discuss data-based implications for higher education policy over the next five years.Donn Marshall, associate dean of students and director of Counseling, Health & Wellness Services at the University of Puget Sound. Marshall will give an overview of risk factors most relevant for a college population, present an examination of promising elements of effective comprehensive campus suicide prevention programs, and consideration of institutional challenges to this work.