Correction Appended.

The Jed Foundation, a nonprofit working to reduce emotional distress and prevent suicide among college students, announced on Oct. 3 in a local press release that Brandeis was among the first 30 schools to earn the Jed Foundation's "JedCampus seal" for exhibiting comprehensive mental health promotion and suicide prevention programming on campus.

Aimed to help colleges explore and enhance their programming in this field, the JedCampus seal program provides colleges with customized feedback and "can help schools develop a strategic plan for mental health promotion," according to the JedCampus website. The program "is widely recognized as the approach colleges should take toward mental health," according to Jed Foundation Executive Director John MacPhee in an interview with the Justice. According to MacPhee, the JedCampus seal program is the first of its kind.

The JedCampus seal application begins with a self-assessment, which is then reviewed and returned. Schools must pay $650 to apply for the seal, but the fee is below the cost of the review and sponsors cover further funding, according to MacPhee. The review process compares the completed survey to recommended practices developed by the the Jed Foundation and Suicide Prevention Resource Center as described in their collaborative publication, The Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention on College and University Campuses, according to the local press release.

Before applying to the JedCampus seal program, Brandeis had already developed much of the resources the Jed Foundation asked applicant schools to have according to Dr. Robert Berlin, senior director of the University's Psychological Counseling Center, in an interview with The Justice. "In the last decade," he said, "we developed what we call a 'safety net' - a very elaborate system of staff, faculty and administrative [staff]" who are trained to help students "experiencing distress" and help them find the appropriate resources. "I can assure you that we nurture those relationships very actively ... in a student-centric way," he said.

Berlin also said that the relationship between Brandeis and the Jed Foundation began before Brandeis applied to the JedCampus seal program. After two consecutive suicides at Brandeis between 2011 and 2012, the Jed Foundation's medical director, Victor Schwartz, contacted Brandeis University's counseling office and offered his help, said Berlin. Berlin later invited Jed Foundation staff to come visit Brandeis for a day and provide consulting services for staff in the Psychological Counseling Center, Student Affairs and Senior Administration, he said.

During this time the Psychological Counseling Center's website also became a "beta" for the Jed Foundation's researched techniques for making a psychological counseling website easily navigable and helpful, said Berlin. Berlin also reviewed these techniques, bolstering the relationship.

The JedCampus website notes that seal recipients will be recognized for their commitment to the emotional well-being of their campus. According to MacPhee, the seal and its meaning is something that the Jed Foundation would like considered when students are deciding what school to attend. In the local press release, MacPhee said that the resulting "campus-wide approach to health promotion" might also improve student retention.