The New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH) has teamed up with local developer Kognito to bring online suicide and at-risk youth prevention training to all high school educators in the state.

The online program, which went live Aug. 15, is called At-Risk for High School Educators and offers a way for educators to role-play scenarios regarding troubled youth as a method of suicide prevention. Director of Suicide Prevention Initiatives for NYSOMH Melanie Puorto said in a press release that the program gives teachers practice in handling at-risk youth and shows them the warning signs of suicidal students:

“Kognito’s training enhances our agency’s youth suicide prevention efforts by providing educators with a virtual practice environment where they engage in role-play conversation with student avatars that exhibit signs of depression, substance abuse, bullying and thoughts of suicide. In this process, they learn to identify students at-risk, how to approach them to discuss their concern, and how to refer them to support services.”

At-Risk for High School Educators is the first online training available to provide these kinds of exercises for teachers.