Faced with the suicide of Weinberg freshman Charles Kim on Dec. 1, 2002, Northwestern administrators sought to help mourning students by providing counseling and other outreach services.
The university chaplain helped Kim’s friends plan a well-attended memorial service, counselors made themselves available to Kim’s dormmates at Sargent Hall, and people throughout the NU community questioned how and why such a tragedy happened here.
Kim’s death was the first suicide in recent memory at NU, but college suicides are not uncommon. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for college students, according to the Jed Foundation, an organization that works to prevent suicides on campuses.
Three New York University students, including one from Evanston, apparently choose to fall to their deaths this fall. In 2000 two students took their lives at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology within 10 months of each other. Suicides have affected all parts of the academic world, from Ivy League schools such as Yale University to regional schools such as Ferrum College in Virginia.
And campuses nationwide are working to find ways to prevent these crises.
At NU that means studying the concerns of students who use Counseling and Psychological Services and re-evaluating priorities based on that research, said Vice President for Student Affairs William Banis.
“We monitor the pressing issues that a lot of students bring into CAPS very closely,” he said.
Re-evaluating services
Following Kim’s suicide, NU formed a special task force to make sure CAPS’ offerings were effectively meeting their short- and long-term goals.
The task force decided to incorporate mental-health education into new student week this year. The “Need a Lifeline?” Essential NU class was designed to reach students when they first arrived on campus by teaching them the signs of depression and where they could get help both on and off campus.
CAPS also formed a partnership with the Jed Foundation, an organization created to prevent college suicide. A Jed Foundation representative sat on the panel for “Need a Lifeline?” and the organization teamed with CAPS to educate resident assistants about suicide.
CAPS also trains RAs, Greek student counselors, health aides and peer health educators to be alert for the warning signs of depression. Faculty and staff also are informed of how to spot students with potential problems. Additionally, each staff member at CAPS is assigned to one of the academic schools and to one or more residential halls.
The addition of new services — and a greater emphasis on programs already in place — is not uncommon for campuses in the aftermath of a suicide.
After MIT sophomore Elizabeth Shin set herself on fire in her dorm room in 2000, the school hired additional mental-health clinicians, extended counseling hours, assigned mental-health professionals to provide education in dorms and guaranteed a faster response time for students who called for mental-health services, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Shared Responsibility?
Despite increased services that are happening nationwide, Evanston resident Inez Okrent — whose son David committed suicide at Harvard University in 1998 — said schools still need to work harder to reach out to students.
“Part of the issue is sometimes the students themselves don’t even recognize what they’re feeling,” she said. “Schools really need to educate students that there are certain signs.”
In a May 2003 “My Turn” column in Newsweek magazine, Okrent expressed her frustration with Harvard.
“We know that ultimately David was responsible for his death, but we believe school administration could have done more to prevent it,” she wrote. “We were never made aware of any system to help us monitor David in conjunction with his counselor or his RA.”
One school already has said it could have done more.
Ferrum College settled a lawsuit this summer by admitting “shared responsibility” for a student’s suicide in 2000. The family of Michael Frentzel had sued the Virginia school, claiming Ferrum ignored their son’s warning signs, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Ferrum’s admission was the first time a college acknowledged partial responsibility for a student suicide.
While some parents argue that schools have an obligation to share information about their children’s well-being, laws keep campus counseling confidential.
“Only if we believe there is a threat of danger to the student himself or herself, to others, or if the student is incapable of taking care of his or her charges will we break confidentiality,” said Henry Perkins, a psychologist at CAPS. “Otherwise it is a case by case situation where we negotiate with the student.”
Changing perceptions
Even with the promise of confidentiality, students often are hesitant to seek help from a counseling service. Many are turning to the Internet to find mental-health information and advice.
Phillip and Donna Satow began the Jed Foundation in 2000, two years after their son and one of his fraternity brothers committed suicide at the University of Arizona. One of their programs is Ulifeline, an online resource for students.
“Ulifeline creates a bridge,” said the foundation’s executive director, Ron Gibori. “Students are one click away from the counseling services on their campus.”
Currently 120 colleges are registered with Ulifeline, which offers services to students, parents and college officials at member schools. Other schools can access the site’s tools with a guest password.
Services include: a self-assessment screening test for various disorders, a column in which mental-health professionals answer anonymous questions, a drug information database, advice for helping a suicidal friend and a link to mental health services outside a college’s offerings.
The Web site is confidential and strives to make students more aware of mental-health issues.
“Students feel going to counseling services is a sign of weakness,” Gibori said. “Colleges need to work on changing the perception and erasing the stigma of mental illness.”
Like Gibori, Okrent said she believes many students are embarrassed to seek help, and she emphasized the need for others to take action.
“Students need to be aware that mental illness can be common and it can be cured,” she said. “There is always possible intervention by someone who can offer help at the right moment.”
Suicide: What you should know
According to the Jed Foundation:
* Four out of every five young adults who attempt suicide have given clear warnings
* 18- to 24-year-olds think about suicide more often than any other age group
* One in 12 U.S. college students makes a suicide plan
* Every 105 minutes another young person commits suicide
From the American Association of Suicidology, some ways to be helpful to someone who is threatening suicide are:
* Be direct. Talk openly and matter-of-factly about suicide.
* Be willing to listen. Allow expressions of feelings. Accept the feelings.
* Be nonjudgmental. Don’t debate whether suicide is right or wrong, or feelings are good or bad. Don’t lecture on the value of life.
* Get involved. Become available. Show interest and support.
* Don’t be sworn to secrecy.
* Take action. Remove means, such as guns or stockpiled pills.
For help or more information, contact:
* The National Hopeline Network, 1-800-SUICIDE (800-784-2433)
* Ulifeline, www.ulifeline.org
* The Jed Foundation, www.jedfoundation.org
* The American Association of Suicidology, www.suicidology.org
* National Mental Health Association, www.nmha.org
* Mental Health Association of the North Shore, 847-328-6198
2120 Lincoln Street
Evanston, IL 60201
[email protected]
* American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, www.afsp.org
