Kay Doré Counseling Center’s Dr. Kevin Yaudes

Since 2001, the Kay Doré Counseling Clinic (KDCC) at McNeese State University has offered quality and affordable counseling services to communities in Southwest Louisiana. In addition, the KDCC is a site placement for programs focusing on learning through growth, training and experience to students earning a Master of Science degree in clinical mental health counseling from McNeese.  

Dr. Kevin Yaudes, an associate professor and assistant department head of the McNeese Department of Psychology and Counseling, is the faculty adviser for the KDCC. In this role, he is responsible for the clinical and daily functioning of the clinic.   

A specific focus is the clinical direction of KDCC. “Because the clinic is a possible site placement for our graduate students in the clinical mental health counseling program, I want to make sure that, as a site placement, the student experience with the clinic adds value to their degree,” he stated. “One way in which we’ve done that is to focus on the clinician response to suicidality. Research has shown that only about 2% of accredited counseling programs include suicide-specific courses. Our goal, through the KDCC, is to ensure that all of the graduate counseling students receive training on working with suicidality.” 

The KDCC also offers a wide range of suicide prevention trainings that are also transferrable to working with mental health in general. Some are one-hour and some are half-day trainings and others are full day or two-day trainings. Not only do the trainings provide suicide-specific information, but also teaches communication skills, such as listening.  

“This is invaluable when interacting with someone who is struggling with their mental health. These trainings offer the ability to work with someone who is struggling but not considering suicide,” Yaudes said. “In other words, the trainings that we offer can possibly help those in our community to access services or resources prior to the point of being suicidal. For mental health, as with medical health, early intervention can lead to better outcomes.” 

Over the years, Yaudes has worked closely with several local, state and national organizations to raise awareness on mental health.  

Yaudes chairs the Southwest Louisiana Out of the Darkness Walk, the annual fundraiser for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the largest national suicide prevention non-profit organization. This year’s event is scheduled for Sept. 14.  

“Walks like ours are an annual fundraiser for AFSP. Much of the funding remains local in the form of suicide prevention programming and education, but this event also funds suicide and suicide prevention research. AFSP is the largest private funder of suicide and suicide prevention research in the country. This is important because there is a lot that we still need to know about suicide,” he explained.  

Yaudes also serves as chair of the AFSP Louisiana Chapter Board of Directors.  

“My connection with the AFSP began when I became involved with the Out of the Darkness Walk. I then joined the board of directors for the Louisiana chapter of AFSP and now serve as the board chair. This connection has strengthened what we are able to do and accomplish in Southwest Louisiana regarding suicide prevention,” he said. 

The chapter recently won four awards at the AFSP Chapter Leader Conference in January: Outstanding Chapter Education and Programming; Outstanding Chapter Support of Research; Chapter of the Year Mid-Size Market; and Greater Baton Rouge Walk.  

He said the chapter was “particularly proud of the award for Outstanding Support of Research.” 

“The use of evidence-based programming, trainings and interventions is very important clinically, in general, but especially when the topic is suicide prevention. Some of the research funded by AFSP is then included in current or future programming,” said Yaudes.  

“In the past few years, we have examined and redesigned the curriculum for the clinical mental health counseling program. The vast majority of counseling programs in the United States do not have a class in which future clinicians receive suicide prevention training. Our program at McNeese now does,” he added. 

The KDCC has also collaborated on several area projects.  

This includes partnering with Imperial Calcasieu to launch a behavioral health pipeline in Southwest Louisiana to address the shortage of mental health professionals in the area through a grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation. The grant will provide 30 students with stipends during their internships at McNeese over the next three years.  

“This grant now provides a mechanism to increase the number of possible site placements for our graduate students in the clinical mental health counseling program,” said Yaudes. “The pipeline refers to the fact that McNeese can educate and train future clinicians but we need to establish a path for experiential learning in the community which should increase the number of providers who will take an intern from our program. This engagement will increase the opportunity for employment for McNeese graduates.” 

The KDCC also worked with the non-profit Peer Initiative Leaders of Tomorrow (PILOT) program to offer peer-to-peer support to address underlying causes of teenage suicide that was created by Sam Houston High School educators.   

“In addition, we have partnered with Imperial Calcasieu Human Services Authority on a number of issues regarding suicide prevention, but the organization has its own prevention programs and are very active in the community,” said Yaudes. “KDCC also partnered with the Calcasieu Parish School Board since January 2021 to provide suicide prevention trainings to all middle and high school educators in Calcasieu Parish.”  

Yaudes said future collaborations will focus on specific organizations and communities within Southwest Louisiana. “We worked to engage with the plants and casinos as they employ significant numbers of individuals from the area. KDCC began offering suicide prevention training this spring to managers and directors at L’Auberge Casino Resort Lake Charles.”  

He added that in Southwest Louisiana KDCC has focused on the Black, Latinx, veterans, LGBTQ+ and service industry communities. “AFSP has new trainings for the Black community and the Latinx community. We are actively recruiting trainers for these new trainings through KDCC.” 

Yaudes has also served as the University of Louisiana System Mental Health Content Expert  

for the past two years and continues in that role. A Mental Health Advisory Council was created at the UL System level which consists of two individuals from each of the nine-member universities. Once that was established, the council worked with AFSP to provide virtual training to students, staff, faculty and administrators throughout the state. 

“We are discussing the possibility of providing suicide prevention trainings to parents and families of ULS students, as well. We are in our third year of offering training to the UL System and the desire for training and education has grown. Because the focus of the counsel is on mental health, we also offer various trainings and education on mental health topics as a series. Our current series this semester focuses on anxiety. Although we do concentrate on specific issues such as suicide, the overall goal is to ensure that mental health remains a focus throughout the system. We are creating a culture in which the mental health of our students, staff, faculty and administration is recognized as a basic need,” he explained. 

“Talking about suicide and mental health brings it ‘out of the darkness’ and may help someone to feel less alone when they are struggling,” said Yaudes. 

For more information on the services provided by the KDCC, call 337-475-5981. 

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