College programs address suicide and ' send silence packing '

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among students and the third-leading cause of death among all young people aged 15-24 years old, according to the American Foundation for suicide prevention. More than 4,000 people in that age group commit suicide each year.Eleven hundred of them are students.Eleven hundred backpacks appears on 14 different campuses in the course of this month represent each of these persons. Some belonged to the students. Others display photos and messages from their friends or family members.It s a project called send silence packing, and the goal is to start a student dialogue about suicide. The in-your-face approach is a far cry from the typical individualized prevention efforts that colleges, such as screening, intervention or assessment. People generally don t want on mental health, and so if you have them in a room to discuss a matter depression inviteprobably, you get a small number of people who already care, said Alison Malmon, founder and Director of active mind, an organization that created and send silence packing who advocates student awareness of mental health. Our goal is to people who don t think that they care to involve or don t want to volunteer to go in that room, and really catch people where they are and put it for them so they can t ignore and can t avoid it.

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Active Minds is a national organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C., with 330 chapters nationwide college designed to involve students in discussions of mental health. Malmon hopes that send silence packing encourages students to talk about suicide and ultimately tragedies discourages by creating a more supportive environment. They made active minds in 2001 as a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, one year after her older brother, who had experienced depression and psychosis in college and returned home during his last year, his life ended.Suicide is just one of many colleges face mental health challenges, as is evident from recent conversations at the annual Convention of the American College personnel Association s. Incoming freshmen this year reported record-low levels of emotional health, and most college counselors in a recent survey said the number of students on campus with severe psychological problems. But despite the prevalence of such issues, open conversation about suicide, depression, anxiety and other problems, particularly among students, doesn t really exist, Malmon said.That s what active mind trying to change. (A) many of our students don t realize that we have free counseling, we have a student health center that you can go to a time. There's just not really knowledge about it, and I don t know if that is connected to the stigma of seeking sources of mental health, said Annie Cressey, mental health educator and active mind Chapter Adviser at the University of Vermontthe backpacks, which earlier this week hosted. They were spread in a prominent, hard-to-avoid location: on a large lawn between the student union and library. (Generally has the University a death by suicide per year, a spokesman said; the most recent took place in October). I think it's a bit universal not only silence, but a really negative way of looking at it With help of a campus suicide prevention grant, Cressey is Chairman of a Commission shall examine the university s efforts. The Commission has been meeting with the stakeholders, including administrators, students, teachers and local police. As soon as it hears all their concerns, it will discuss how to proceed. The goal is a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention, where everyone is equipped to help someone in need. I think it is the ability to people are aware of what the risk factors, Cressey said. It s about us with a knowledge base that it's happening, not to pretend that it s not happening, because to ignore it is to keep us in silence. Suicide is a difficult subject to navigate on college campuses in part because there's a fear of contagion in telling the stories of students who died, said Courtney Knowles, Executive Director of the Jed Foundation, an organization that is aimed at preventing suicide and emotional distress among students. Colleges must be careful about communicating too much detail on such a sensitive issue. Representation of the impact and loss of life in an effective and safe way, send silence packing stands out as a broad and rare effort to inspire action, said Knowles, distinguished from the more general technique of targeting students who need help themselves (hoewelNatuurlijk, both are important). IT gets campuses and students and families to realize the importance of the understanding of the problem, he said. IT takes on its own prevention effort. College mental health lawyers face a special challenge, Knowles said. There are a lot of issues that sort of hot-button issues, and mental health isn t one of them, "he said. Any possibility to wake people up to the fact that this is a real problem that s very common among students is a positive, because I think it can only be more awareness and more calls for the issue. Abby Levinsohn, co-Chairman of the Vermont chapter of active minds and a student at the University, students shy and afraid of talking about going to counseling center has seen. She referenced the motto of active thoughts: everyone has mental health. Students should start talking about it. Putting a lot of resources and time in one great event that will people talk in General, it is really important. And people can do that in different ways, she said. A lot of schools have a huge impact in different ways. For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ 's. Report corrections and clarifications, contact standards Editor Brent Jones. For consideration of publication in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and State for authentication. Our corrections, go to corrections. usatoday.com. We've updated the guidelines for the conversation. Changes include a brief overview of the monitoring process and an explanation about how to use the "report abuse" button. Read more.