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The Campus Suicide Crisis
Overcoming social stigmas around asking for help also remains an uphill battle on most campuses. More than 80 percent of students who commit suicide never sought counseling beforehand, according to a University of Texas study released earlier this year. “Students are incredibly worried about stigmas and being labeled. They want to be normal, to fit in,” Scheyett says. “So they’re very reluctant to seek out help.”
In certain cases, students may increasingly find that there’s no one to turn to. A college campus should have at minimum one therapist for every 1,000 to 1,500 students, according to standards set by the International Association of Counseling Services (ICACS). But many schools don’t even come close to meeting that goal—by one estimate, colleges would need to add an additional 75 percent increase in counseling staff to meet such needs. As NPR reported last month, the waitlists for students seeking help can stretch to a month or more. Recent budget cuts may be at least partially to blame.
"Students in crisis tend to get the greater share of limited resources, resulting in less assistance to other students who are not so acute but who are dealing with more 'traditional' adjustment and developmental disorders," according to an ICACS position paper. "These students may fall through the cracks."
To deal with all of these problems, several schools have launched initiatives that emulate earlier anti-drunk driving campaigns by using peer pressure to push students to seek professional help. “Just like friends don’t let friends drive drunk, friends don’t remain silent when someone is clearly in peril,” says Gary Pavela, a legal scholar at Syracuse University and author of a book on college suicide.
One much-lauded suicide prevention program is that of Cornell University. For years, Cornell suffered the cliché that it was the school with the highest suicide rate, in part because of its proximity to a series of rocky ravines. Since 2002, the school has put in place several suicide-prevention measures modeled on similar efforts undertaken by the U.S. Air Force. Faculty, staff, and resident hall advisors are all now routinely educated about warning signs, and students are introduced to psychiatric wellness programs as part of school orientations. Perhaps as a result, only five Cornell students have taken their lives over the past seven years, compared to 11 in the six years prior to 2002.
Somewhat ironically, another school that’s undertaken a number of preventative measures is NYU. Following a rash of suicides in recent years, the campus took a number of steps to stop such incidents from occurring. A 24-hour hotline is now available to students. Security guards were posted on the rooftops of two high-rises on campus and balcony access was restricted. And at the library, tall Plexiglass walls were installed on floors that faced the building’s atrium.
And still, none of this was enough to prevent Williamson-Noble’s death.
Kathleen Kingsbury covers education for The Daily Beast. She also contributes to Time magazine, where she has covered business, health and education since 2005.
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anacalvertkilbane
amen.
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nortonclybourn
There is no evidence that suicide increases because career opportunities are marginally lower or because there is a national malaise.
Uncommonsense
Thank you. Suicide is not something one does when one is feeling blue. Mental illness is a huge problem in this country, treatment is expensive and hard to come by.
krzemke
As a Junior at NYU, I've been around for the last three suicides on campus. I was not, however, around for the 5 student deaths in the 2003-2004 school year.
It's just so sad to wake up in the morning and get an email from John Sexton and see on the Washington Square News that yet another student has killed himself. NYU has so many resources available to students, it's a shame to see them not being taken advtange of by students in distress.
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sophia5
( " They are facing the hard realities of life after being pampered by their parents. " )
While kids in India and China are going through grueling education systems,
we are coddling our kids with artificially elevated grading curves so NOT TO OFFEND,
and trophies for everyone, win or lose, so NOT TO HURT FEELINGS.
Political correctness makes some kids soft and unprepared for the REAL world,
and they are in for a rude awakening.
Other factors could be the break down of the family,
distractions of overwhelming 24/7 technology where people
seem more connected,
but in reality don't have any down time just to chill.
And . . . The "entertainment" (movies) we have these days,
seems to have taken on a darker tone.
And what's up with all the skulls everywhere on clothing ???
Good thing we still have clever, funny shows like "30 Rock," and "The Office."
---------------------------------
( " Many good jobs were out sourced during the Bush years " )
Let's not make this a Political Party issue.
Both parties in conjunction with their Lobbyist
"donations" have been complicit in " Outsourcing. "
Major Outsourcing began in the Mid 80s'.
I was there, I remember being in a company meeting in 1986 when they
told us some of the manufacturing will be moving to China.
djanimaequeen
Good post. Thanks for the insight.
nortonclybourn
If you got A's for your essays, it's because they were "so not to offend."
WestWoman
Lucinda Roy's No Right to Remain Silent: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech is a detailed account of the steps she and others at Virginia Tech took in order to get Seung-Hui Cho to seek help as he was clearly a disturbed student, whom many feared was dangerous to others as well as himself. The failures of VT have not been widely discussed in the media. They are closely examined here.
dooreen
I think though, people need to be nicer to each other.
It seems like the people who get ahead, are the ones that are able to be the coldest and meanest.
Maybe it is a simplification, but that is what people who appear to get ahead by stepping on others do too.
I took a third year stat/econ course, that the format was radically changed in its new edition. So the old version had open book exam the new one didn't, and of course it was a required course to take to get into the risk management course, decision making, so people panicked, and there was little explanation on how to shift from one format to the other.
That is what people have to do, especially when the derivative market was being exploited/abused the way it was/is being.
You have to be able to see those derivatives on the chart, especially when they are so volatile.
And we are all derivatives in a way, derived from situations, so we have to be able to hang on for the ride, cause of the volatile shifting which is really nerve racking.
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dooreen
That is right. We should be more like square yellow paper.
Uncommonsense
You're the loser. You're the one who has a shallow understanding of the world. Mental illness is not caused by parents who provided too much for their kids.
dooreen
I think you can compare living with extreme change/derivatives, with being forced to ride on a teatatotter where you have no control of how much weight is placed on the other side.
So you have no idea when one side will have more weight on it than the side you are sitting on, so you have no idea when you will be left stuck up in the air, or if the weight will be removed, so you come down to the ground with a real thump.
The fear of the unknown, and the actual feelings of getting stuck in the air or landing with a big thump, can make you cry or laugh, depending on the support system around you.
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Noontime
squareyellowpaper:
Dude. Lighten up.
I'm inclined to agree with you that there is a sense of entitlement run amok in today's young folks. But to suggest that those who take their own lives do so because they are "weak or coddled," is pretty thin. I mean, when someone jumps off a ten story building, there's more at play than a weak economy or poor job market. This is depression and despiar in the extreme.
Also, if we're looking to correlate depression with reality, then these kids would be killing themselves after they left school---not while they're still on campus. Hell, campus life is nirvana.
I agree that critical thinking and the possession of competitve edge are excellent tools. I'm abundant in both areas. Unfortunately they only get you so far. In the corporate world--where I, like so many other make a living--eschewing ethics, integrity, and well...just plain fucking people over does garner the most immediate reward from some bosses.
So I think Doreen makes a good point. Survival skills and a conscience arent mutually exclusive.
dooreen
It depends. Often the best business people are college drop outs, who see a need, possibly from their own need, and find a way to fill it. Now look at Bill Gates and the person/people who started facebook.
For the economy to expand and shift, people get left behind, often the ones that were the most successful when things were the other way.
I think I do make a good point. What craziness, paying for $1000 ethics course, when Madoff apparently was having the time of his life, when he was still young enough to enjoy it, by sc-ewing/bullying people.
That would have been worse than taking auditing and accounting theory at the time when Madoff was admitting to sc-ewing people for possibly decades by scaring and yelling people. He wasn't even making trades, now we know. The authorities could have found out sooner, if they had forced the issue of existence.
I think therefore I am. And it hurts.
Siouxie921
All these kids have been coddled by their families way into adulthood. Mommie and Daddy tell them how wonderful they are each and every day of their lives. So when adversity hits, they crumble.
So there's something to the "School of Hard Knocks" after all. If nothing else, it prepares you for the dog eat dog of the real world.
That's why they cannot cut in on their own.
Noontime
Siouxie921:
Wow. So let me get this straight. A parents job isnt to love their children, but to beat them down in order to "toughen them up?"
Within the vast handbook of parenting I do believe there is a place for genuine tough love. Unfortunately, a lot of kids who arent loved or valued, who by default, attend this so-called school of hard knocks rise through the ranks and achieve success and/or power.
I have absolutely no problem with that. But..
Problem is, some of these folks are so fucking bitter and jealous of the well- adjusted people whose parents actually loved them, that they feel its their divine right to professionally and personally punish those people who didnt suffer enough in childhood.
Ive met co workers and bosses who really think its their right to make other people miserable. As such, its always been my theory that more often than not, the wrong people commit suicide.
Those people, like this kid in the story, who take themselves out, do so for personal reasons. Some people call their act a "selfish" one. I disagree.
But more often than not, its the most miserable, self-involved people--those who werent loved and feel somehow cheated--who devote their lives to making other people miserable. And they think theyre providing some sort of public service. Pretty ironic.
dooreen
That is really true isn't it.
I think too, people might thing they have failed the people they love, for some reason, and they don't want to be a burden.
Siouxie921
noontime: "Campus life is nirvana"? Maybe for you. But not for the kids who don't fit into any social groups and are failing their courses.
dooreen
I sort of wonder, if it more about stage fright and related mental injury, verses some biological brain disease.
I remember my first year stat class, people were walking out, dropping out, after they got their assignments back. I remember one girl didn't believe me that the graph/equation was not normal, and she was one of the ones who walked out, and I think all these people could have been fine nurses, a few decades ago, when people were more important, in a functional way, than technology.
People have to learn how to derive, and not to take everything so personally, especially with those who manage by egos instead of objectives.
And i think working as a team, instead being so alone, could help but maybe not, it depends again if it is managed by ego instead of objective.
It comes back to war. What is the objective of war. It looks like, you try to kill as many people on the other side as you can because you get shot down, by your competitor, well golly gee, how scary is that? And how barbaric. Cave men could cope better than normal people like moi and toi :).
BluLobster
I think it is ridiculous to paint all college students with the same brush, as coddled, overpriviliged children whose parents hide the real world from them. Many are students struggling to even afford college, working one or two jobs to afford their tuition. Many have parents who can't afford their tuition, who aren't getting enough financial aid, and are constantly worrying about their finances all while trying to get good grades.
Many suffer from illness and extreme stress. While many of you seem to think college is a carefree environment, the fact is that college students are more prone to sleep very little and suffer ill health due to stress. This is magnified for any student with psychological illness.
Many have experienced the "real world" and haven't just been dwelling in their parent's ivory castles. Plenty are from urban environments. They ha witnessed crime. They may have lost parents or have parent's who don't give a shit about them.
Instead of using this tragedy to judge the faceless mass of college students, maybe we should be feeling sorry for a boy who simply couldn;t fdeal with all the stress.
DoctorB
So many of the issues faced by today's young adults are the same developmental crises faced by previous generations coming of age. Adolescence is the most turbulent & difficult period of life, even for the most healthy & well-adjusted people. Many mental illnesses typically have their onset in early adulthood- e.g., Schizophrenia, Bipolar, Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety disorder, OCD. Substance abuse is rampant among this demographic. Immaturity is usually associated with poor impulse control, increasing the chance that when they have suicidal thoughts, they will act upon them.
I have personally evaluated & treated hundreds of college students. I actually find that the four conditions most highly correlated with suicide are substance abuse, Anxiety Disorders, impulse control disorders, & Personality Disorders.
Contrary to most people's instincts, Major Depression is less predictive of suicidal behavior than are any of those four.
The biggest reason why the problem persists to the degree it does remains the reluctance of those who need help to seek treatment. Any person who says nothing even when they see a friend in great distress is really no friend at all. We all have a moral obligation to inform people about the truths vs. myths regarding mental illness. Only when all sorts of people feel free to discuss their problems without fear that they will be stigmatized or ridiculed will we make a meaningful dent in this public health problem. We all can help.
dooreen
How do you explain Fort Hood Rampage. That is what I am talking about.
People do no fit into neat little profiles, and it is easy to predict what one hundred people might do, much harder to predict what one person will do.
As this case and Fort Hood Rampage so clearly demonstrates.
dooreen
There is an article on another news channel that says 75% of young people at recruiting age that went to recruiting office, are either not fit, don't pass the entrance exam, or have criminal records.
So that means 3/4 or 3 out of 4 young people that offered themselves to the recruiting office were not fit to be accepted.
So beyond deriving a probability of how many young people do not meet military standards,if you push these people too far they could break, that is why they are not fit for the military. They would not be able to stand till while being yelled at.
It is fine to push the war, oh 2 wars, but who is going to fight them?
Sure we could throw square yellow paper out of a plane and hope the other sides runs away or stay hidden in their tunnels.
Sadly, in all probability, cavemen are fitter than we are.
dooreen
Sadly the Doctor B's in the world are not getting the facts straight.
According to the military, the problem related to unift kids has never been like this before. Statistically. The quantity.
Just from observation you can see how these new kids are a lot different, and you can't blame them.
Sure it is is easy to be in a nice office, look at symptoms, look them up in the catalog, and voila, you have a dx, ok a mcdiagnosis.
But if the military is actually saying this is a national security risk, why would they lie about that?
Sure we can send drones out, to the enemy territories, if terrifying them with masses of yellow paper does not work.
But what happens if we are actually terrifying our own side, our own kids.
Yelling at people who are breaking is a bad idea. Add some humiliation and abuse, then send them to the Dr. B's of the world, still does not solve the problem. It will just cover it up.
The fact, kids can't pass basic requirements to get into the military, when the nation is in two wars.
Well golly gee. I feel anxious.
nortonclybourn
Wake me up when you come to a point.
dooreen
Fort Hood. An example of what I am talking about.
Thank you.
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