By RaShayla Daniels and Everett Corder
Depressed? Suicidal? Call 911, 211—-or at least seek help online!
Although nothing can replace face-to-face contact with a therapist, Tech’s Student Counseling Center offers resources immediately accessible through its website, including an online mental health screening, virtual self-help library and online educational workshops. The center’s website also debunks suicide myths and offers tips for students struggling with suicidal thoughts or concerned that friends may be contemplating taking their own lives.
Other college campuses, including Miami University in Ohio and Emory University, have developed or introduced their own suicide prevention apps. Elsewehere, where there is no college-specific app, students have reached for help through the anonymous, location-specific Yik Yak app.
The national Suicide Prevention Resource Center suggests suicide is a serious problem on college campuses. Data show that more than 7 percent of undergraduate and graduate students have at least “seriously considered” suicide, 2.3 percent have made a suicide plan, and between 0.6 percent and 1.2 percent have attempted suicide. Rates among college students, however, are lower than the rates for young adults between the ages of 18 and 22 who are not enrolled in college.
Source: Suicide Prevention Resource Center
Tech’s counseling center has a suicide prevention training program, in which volunteers can become certified “QPR gatekeepers,” who look for warning signs of suicide and connecting students to helpful resources. QPR stands for “question, persuade, refer.” A free, online suicide prevention training option is also available for Texas university faculty and students through the Texas Suicide Prevention initiative.
But not all students have heard about these suicide prevention resources on campus and statewide.
Kristen Barton, a sophomore journalism major at Tech, said she knows little about suicide-prevention programs because they do not seem to be publicized often.
“I think suicide and depression and even just mental health in general are things that aren’t talked about enough today,” she said.
Emma Adams, a junior advertising student, agrees that communication about sucide prevention is key.
“Just getting the word out there early on and letting people know what kind of stuff Tech has to help people would be great,” Adams said. “I’m not sure they do a great job of getting the word out, so people could be depressed and not even know there’s programs to help them.”
Suicide is the second leading cause of death (following unintentional injury) for the 15-24 and 25-34 age groups, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Further, reports the CDC, across age groups, suicide was the 10th leading cause of death and 41,149 Americans took their lives in 2013.
A Texas county-level map generated through the CDC’s recently released imaging tool shows the Lubbock-Hockley and the Randall-Potter areas stand out with relatively higher rates of suicides compared to the rest of the state.
Although suicide cuts across classes and cultures, the American Society for Suicidology reports that more white males commit suicide than any other group.
Tim Cook, a senior exercise sports science major from Cumby, Texas, was surprised at the statistics and almost did not know what to make of white males being the leading suicidal group. He said that although he has never seriously considered or attempted suicide, he has thought about the idea of it.
“With experiences that I’ve had with school and family, I’ve often thought about it, but not like I ever wanted to pursue it,” Cook said. “It’s easy to get lost in all the dramatic times and to get carried away … and that’s kind of how everyone wants to do, so I feel like it’s an easy possibility.”
Cook said his father was not around growing up, leaving him to be the only male in a house with four sisters and his mother. As a white male, he said, there can be a lot of pressure to be the head of the household and to help take care of the family. If a man is not able to help out or come through for the family the way he is expected, it is easier for some to crumble and give up rather than fight through tough times.
“I feel like everything is given to us kind of easy so when its not easy — it’s like ‘Oh damn,’ I can’t do this and then we get discouraged and quit,” Cook added.
Cook said that any online prevention program is a great option for college students. Nowadays, people would rather hide behind a computer or a phone to talk to someone, so this would be a more comfortable way to express their true feelings.
“I feel like a lot of people are under pressure so something like this is very, very beneficial especially to college students,” Cook said. “Because it does get really hard. We are by ourselves, we’re trying to do stuff by ourselves for the first time, and I feel people need things or people like this to help them out through tough times.”
Source: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
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