Nov 09, 2014 07:55 PM EST By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Alfred University in New York have joined the Jed and Clinton Health Matters Campus Program to Support Student Mental Health.

The program, which is based in mostly smaller east coast schools like Alfred University, is designed to help schools prevent the two leading causes of death in young adults -- accidents, including those caused by prescription drug overdoses or alcohol poisoning, and suicide. The campus program, launched in June 2014, is also designed to help colleges and universities promote emotional wellbeing and mental health programming, reduce substance abuse, and prevent suicide among their students.

"It sounded like a great program," Stanley Tam, director of the Counseling and Wellness Center at Alfred University, said in a statement. "[The program provides] a lot of good advocacy for emerging schools because everyone is having the same issues and a lot of schools feel isolated in dealing with these issues."

In addition, it seems that this program unites the smaller schools together with the bigger schools who are also participating to offer an allegiance of sorts against these mental health issues in higher education institutions, according to school officials.

Alfred University is one of 56 colleges and universities nationwide that have joined JED suicide prevention initiative.

Participating schools make a four-year commitment to work with the Campus Program to evaluate and identify opportunities to augment these activities on campus. Additionally, the program provides schools with a framework for supporting student mental health, as well as assessment tools, feedback reports, and ongoing technical assistance from the Program team as well.

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