RDUSD High School Suicide Case Study

Mental health and emotional wellness are contributing factors for the increase of suicide attempts. In Sacramento county, RDUSD high school students have the highest rates for experiencing such issues because they lack the support and resources. Therefore, our great team of health education specialists will implement the Peer Health Mentorship (PHM) program to both Rio Vista and Delta high school students. It is important to achieve participation and involvement of the RDUSD high school students, parents and other key players to get this program started. So, by utilizing the marketing mix which includes the product, place, price and promotion strategies, we will be able to disseminate the necessary information and resources to our priority population and community.

Our product is to offer RDUSD high school students the opportunity to become a Peer Health Mentor.

They will become well trained and resourceful PHM students by personally assisting their fellow classmates in need of social support, mental health information, and coping skills to help reduce the suicide rates and mortality. This multi-strategy intervention will be a collaborative effort with the guidance of the school counselors and our team of health education specialists. For those students in need of assistance and resources such as what the PHM program has to offer, having a fellow classmate will be a comfortable outlet for them to reach out to.

Since we will be targeting the RDUSD high school students, it would only make sense to offer this program and services at the most accessible and comfortable place. All of the trainings, presentations, counseling services, workshops, and events will take place at the Rio Vista and Delta high school campuses. Offering and facilitating services during and after school will be the most convenient through the use of the classrooms and buildings since the students will already be

there.
In addition, the price of the program will have no financial costs for all of the high school students whether or not they want to be trained PHMs or students who simply want to utilize the program services. This will help cater to the students’ needs without feeling discouraged by having to pay for fees. However, for those in the community that would like to provide financial assistance, they can contact one of our health education specialists if they are interested in donating to help fund for the training materials.
Having a product at the right place and price will not be achieved unless we promote the PHM program the right way. So, prior to the start of the following school year, we will inform the RDUSD students and increase their awareness of the PHM program through the dissemination of on-campus flyers, posters, brochures, announcements, bulletins, and have the principals send out email correspondence to the student’s parents as well. In the community, we will have advertisements and flyers posted on the main RDUSD website and on our partner’s and/or other organization’s (i.e. AFSP and NAMI) social media pages. We will persuade the RDUSD high school students to engage and participate by offering them incentives such as free counseling, training, workshops, peer social support, skills development, and so on. We will constantly reinforce this program and its services through social engineering with posters and flyers all over the campus’ buildings. Since our program goal is to address mental health and emotional wellness, we are different from our competitors because we offer a free PHM program where we have the physical social support conveniently located on the campuses of our priority population.