Biology

The Ogden College of Science and Engineering congratulates Dr. Amy Brausch, Professor in the WKU Department of Psychological Sciences, on the receipt of two new grant awards, totaling $231,000. While the projects are separate, both aim to advance suicide prevention through clinical training in Kentucky and innovative research on suicide risk.

The first award, Equipping Kentucky Clinicians with Lethal Means Counseling and Suicide Prevention Training, is funded by the Kentucky Cabinet for Justice and Public Safety through the 2025 Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program. The $158,000 grant runs from January 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027.

This project focuses on Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) training to graduate students, university staff, and licensed mental health professionals across the region. Eight training sessions will be offered throughout 2026, free of charge.

CALM training prepares clinicians and other professionals to have direct, informed conversations with individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts about their access to potentially lethal means. 

“Limiting access to lethal means during a suicide crisis is a huge part of suicide prevention,” said Dr. Brausch. “Equipping clinicians with this knowledge will help save lives in Kentucky.”

Participants will complete surveys before and after their CALM training to assess what they’ve learned and how comfortable they feel discussing access to lethal means. The project will also track how clinicians implement these skills in their practice and examine suicide trends in the region.

The grant will support one graduate research assistant, Amber Bow, who will assist with training recruitment, preparing and distributing surveys, and managing project data. 

This project is also conducted in collaboration with the LifeSkills Center for Child Welfare Research and Education.

In addition to the statewide training initiative, Dr. Brausch also received funding for a research project focused on understanding suicide risk among adolescents.

This second award, Testing a Novel Assessment Tool for Proximal and Distal Factors in the Lead-up to Suicide Attempts in Adolescents, is funded by the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital through The Center for Accelerating Suicide Prevention in Real-World Settings (ASPIRES) Pilot Grant program, whose parent grant is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. The $73,000 grant runs from August 1, 2025, through July 31, 2027.

This research project evaluates an innovative assessment tool known as the Card Sort Task for Self-Harm (CaTS), which is designed to better understand the sequence of events that precede suicide attempts in adolescents.

Working in partnership with the Children’s Crisis Stabilization Unit in Bowling Green, the research team will meet individually with 50 adolescents who have recently made a suicide attempt. During the CaTS assessment, participants select from more than 100 cards representing thoughts, emotions, events, and behaviors, and place them along a timeline spanning six months before the attempt through the final hour leading up to it.

“Decades of research on suicide risk in adolescents have not improved our ability to predict who will make a suicide attempt,” said Dr. Brausch. “This project helps to fill that gap by asking adolescents to map out the timeline leading up to their suicide attempt. We will be able to identify patterns and specific warning signs that will help us understand when we need to intervene with an adolescent at risk.”

Results could help inform parent education, clinician training, and the development of prevention and treatment programs that respond more precisely to warning signs.

This grant supports graduate research assistant Nathan Meredith, who will administer the assessment tool and conduct interviews at the crisis stabilization unit, accompanied by undergraduate student researchers. Meredith will also assist in managing and analyzing project data. 

The project includes collaboration with Dr. Megan Rogers of Texas State University and Dr. Philip Resnik of the University of Maryland. The funding will allow the team to travel to national and international suicide research conferences to present their findings.

In addition to advancing suicide prevention research and training, both grants provide meaningful, real-world research opportunities for WKU students.

“I love being able to provide training on suicide prevention,” said Dr. Brausch. “I have seen how learning these skills empowers clinicians to have difficult conversations with people at risk for suicide and provide the best possible care.”