It’s the epidemic no one wants to talk about and hits the adolescent and college-age population particularly hard.  While there is no vaccination for it, plenty of help is available to stop the scourge of suicide--and no one should wrestle demons on their own.

Sept. 10 is national Suicide Prevention Day and campus mental health professionals plan to staff an information table in the Campus Center Sept. 8 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. as part of a series of events during Suicide Prevention Month in September. Dr. Jill Bandura, a staff psychologist, is expected to answer questions about available resources through Campus Mental Health Services. 

Information also will be available about recognizing signs that people might be considering suicide, ways to talk to someone who is severely depressed, places to seek help on campus for mental health problems, as well as state and national suicide prevention resources.

A new national suicide-prevention hotline recently was activated. Anyone who needs to talk can call or text 988, and be able to speak with a trained mental health professional, 24 hours a day.

The national suicide rate for adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 was 14.24 per 100,000 in 2020; suicide is the third leading cause of death for that age group. And suicide IS preventable; between 50 percent and 75 percent of people who die by suicide tell someone about it in advance, according to Campus Mental Health Services. 

“There has been a young adult mental health crisis for 25 years,” said Dr. Andrew Berger, director of campus mental health services. “The pandemic exacerbated it, by taking something that was already high and pushing it to a new level.”

In the early days of the semester, members of the mental health staff plan to visit classes to discuss the mental health services available at FSC and stress that they are free and confidential, Berger added.

Fortunately, during the 35 years he has worked at the College, Berger said, there have been no suicides on campus. He attributes this in part to the center’s commitment to rapid responses and to accessibility. “Everyone who comes in gets a battery of psychometric measures,” Berger explained. “We get additional clinical information to construct a treatment approach.”

Campus Mental Health Services’ staff members also are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, added Berger, which is unusual for mental health centers. In the event patients have a crisis after hours, they can call campus police and be routed directly to their therapists, rather than a crisis hotline. If the person is a first-time caller, he or she is connected to Berger or Assistant Director Dr. Shane Owens. 

Among the indicators that someone might be at risk of suicide, according to Owens: 

  • Expressing the desire to die.
  • Feeling like a burden to others.
  • Experiencing overwhelming guilt or shame.
  • Feeling hopeless or helpless.
  • Describing empty or anxious feelings.
  • Rehearsing or talking about ways to die, or engaging in risky behavior.
  • Changes in alcohol or drug use.

Other information that will be available Sept. 8: