Connect to Care in Schools Study FAQs

Dr. Mueller has always had an interest in understanding how to build schools that address youth’s education and developmental needs. As suicide became an increasing problem in the U.S., she became deeply passionate about to improve suicide prevention and postvention in schools. She is particularly interested in identifying strategies that don’t overburden school staff and that support their own well-being. 

This study involves participating in an online confidential survey about strategies and challenges to supporting student well-being in schools and preventing suicide through connectedness – both between school staff and students and between students and community mental health services. The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete and can be completed at any time.

Yes. School staff who complete the survey will receive an e-gift certificate to Amazon.com. 

We will be randomly selecting schools in the states of Indiana and Colorado and inviting some staff at that school to participate. 

No. Participation is voluntary. Deciding not to participate, or deciding to leave the study later (which you can do at any time), will not result in any penalty or loss of benefits to which they are entitled.

There are no benefits to participating for individual participants. However, there may be benefits for society – in the form of knowledge gained – and there may be benefits to your community specifically. We will provide a written report of the findings from our study and will present those findings in public sessions in your state upon completion of the study. We will also provide free access to any publications that result from the study. We are committed to ensuring that findings from this study are translated into policy efforts that help staff, students, and schools.

The schools that are included in this study were selected at random from the population of public, traditional, in person high schools in your state. Our goal is to collect data from a representative sample of schools in your state.

Dr. Mueller has been working on improving suicide prevention and postvention in schools in Colorado and Indiana for over 5 years now. These are the two states she knows well and where she has ties in the education, public health, suicide prevention, and state policy communities. Additionally, leaders at the state-level expressed strong support for this project, which helps ensure that study findings will be used to make policy decisions to improve schools and staff well-being.

Absolutely not. No schools will be named in any publications or presentations. We take protecting the privacy of all who participate in our studies very seriously.

Please ask! We are easy to reach C2CStudy@iu.edu.