Preventative Measures Menu
This menu, developed as part of the Graduate Student Experience Initiative, offers evidence-informed options designed to promote community wellbeing, enhance emotional resilience, and support thriving academic environments.
The menu items included provide practical skills for responding to stress, supporting others, and fostering a campus community of care. Whether you seek a short workshop, self-paced online learning, or a deeper dive into mental health skill-building, you can select an option that best fits your community's needs.
Training Options At-a-Glance
| Focus Area | Format | Audience | Duration | |
| QPR | Suicide prevention and conversation skills | In-person or online | Anyone supporting peers or students | 1 hour (online) or 90 minutes (in-person) |
| Mental Health First Aid | Mental health literacy and crisis response | In-person or online | Anyone on campus | 2 hours (online, asynchronous) or 6 hours (in-person) |
| Retrain Your Brain | Emotional regulation and self-care | Self-paced, online | Individuals (developed for students) | Varies but up to 75 minutes |
| Community Resilience Model | Nervous system regulation and resilience | In-person or online | Anyone on campus | Customizable |
| Financial Wellbeing Training | Strategies to keep wallets healthy | In-person or online | Students | Webinar or customizable |
The trainings provide varied format and delivery—ranging from short sessions to longer workshops, available in-person or online. Departments, programs, and student groups are invited to explore these options and select the resources that best fit their community.
Together, we can build a more connected, resilient, and supportive campus.
QPR Training - Question, Persuade, Refer
Just like CPR helps in physical emergencies, QPR is a proven emergency response that can save lives during a mental health crisis. This training teaches participants how to Question, Persuade, and Refer someone to help including:
- How to identify warning signs of suicide
- How to approach and support someone who may be struggling
- How to connect someone in crisis with appropriate help
- Common causes of suicidal thoughts and behavior
- Where to seek help for yourself or others
Duration:
- Online (Asynchronous): Takes approximately 1 hour to complete and can be done at your own pace.
- In-Person: Approximately 90 minutes. Offered periodically throughout the year by various facilitators who are UNC-Chapel Hill employees. Upcoming dates will be posted on the Heels Care Network website.
Intended Audience: Open to all UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff can access at no charge. Offered at no cost.
Certification: Participants will receive a certificate upon completion.
How to Register:
Register here for online QPR. Use the registration code: UNCCH2240959979. In the “Notes” section, indicate whether you are a student, faculty, or staff. After registering, you’ll receive an email from QPR with instructions on how to begin the course. Note: While there is no expiration date for the code, availability is limited based on the number of paid licenses.
For in-person QPR training, contact an instructor to request the training for your community.
Contact: dos@unc.edu
Mental Health First Aid
The premiere evidence-based training offered at Carolina that equips participants with essential skills to support someone having a mental health challenge or crisis. Participants learn:
- How to identify signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use issues
- How to support someone in a mental health crisis
- How to connect individuals with appropriate care and resources
Format & Duration:
- 8-hour training, available as either:
- One full-day session
- Two half-day sessions
Intended Audience: Offered at no cost to anyone affiliated with UNC-Chapel Hill's campus (Faculty, Graduate and Professional Students, Greek Life, Post-doctoral Fellow, Staff, Temporary employee, Undergraduate Students).
Additional Information:
- MHFA certificates are valid for three years.
- You can also request a customized MHFA workshop for your UNC-Chapel Hill school, department, or unit.
Register online for upcoming MHFA trainings
Contact: mhfaprogram@unc.edu
Retrain Your Brain
A self-paced, online workshop grounded in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). It’s designed to help participants better understand their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors—and to build practical skills for managing them.
Through a series of videos and interactive modules, participants will explore:
- Why we experience anxiety and depression
- How these conditions affect the brain
- How our brains learn patters of emotional response
- What emotions are trying to tell us - and how to respond effectively
- Strategies to manage distress and reduce impulsive reactions
- Common thinking traps and how to avoid them
- How to recognize action urges and apply opposite action techniques
Each module includes exercises to help participants practice and apply what they’ve learned in real life.
Duration: Participants can opt in or out of each online element. The entire video library and module completion takes about 75 minutes.
Intended Audience: Students, but open to all at no cost.
Contact: caps@unc.edu
Community Resilience Model
A practical and evidence-based approach to enhancing mental wellness and resilience by teaching participants how to regulate their nervous systems and return to balance during periods of stress or adversity. Rooted in somatic psychotherapy, the Community Resilience Model offers a set of biologically based, sensory-focused skills that can be learned and shared widely – making it a scalable and sustainable tool for individual and community well-being.
The model emphasizes growing one’s “resilient zone” - a state in which individuals can think clearly, respond intentionally, and function effectively even in the presence of stress. The approach focuses on interoception (awareness of internal body sensations) and exteroception (awareness through the five senses), helping people track how stress and trauma affect their bodies and how to respond in the moment.
Participants will learn to:
- Understand the neurobiology of stress, trauma, and resilience
- Recognize and return to their personal resilient zone
- Apply 6 core wellness skills in real time
- Guide practice and opportunities for real-time application
- Support themselves and others in moments of stress
- Reduce burnout and promote long-term wellness
Duration: Community Resilience Model training is flexible and can be adapted to meet the needs of your group. Ideal sessions last 2 hours, but shorter options are available. Training can be delivered in person or via Zoom.
Intended Audience: Anyone interested in practical tools for managing stress and building resilience — especially those in caregiving, high-pressure, or community support roles. Training is available at no charge for UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, staff, schools, departments, or units.
Contact Information: Email Leslie Sharpe lsharpe@email.unc.edu and LaTonia Chalmers lcchalme@email.unc.edu with questions or to begin the process of scheduling a training course with your community.
Financial Wellbeing Training
Grad school and starting a professional journey can be exciting, but also financially stressful. The Carolina Financial Wellbeing Center offers trainings that can help graduate and professional students take control of their money with confidence. From building a budget that fits their lives to understanding credit and student loans, participants will walk away with practical tools to support financial well-being both now and in the future.
What Participants Can Learn:
- How to build a budget that works for graduate and professional students’ lives
- Strategies for managing and paying off student loan debt
- What credit scores really mean and how to improve yours
- Saving and investing basics (even if you're just starting out)
- How to recognize scams and protect your identity
- How to compare job offers and understand the cost of living in different cities
Duration: Webinar video coming soon. Departments can also reach out to the Carolina Financial Wellbeing Center to request trainings to meet the needs of their community.
Intended Audience: The center can adapt training to a community's needs. Training is available at no charge for UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, staff, schools, departments, or units.
Contact: cfwc@unc.edu
