At William and Mary, there have been four. At the University of Pennsylvania, there have been four. And there have been four at Tulane University. And there has been one at Yale. And there have been three at George Washington University. But those are not just numbers, they are young lives recently lost to suicide—college students who should be launching into the prime of their lives but instead are gone. They were our sisters, brothers, children, friends, neighbors and the future generation of our nation. Suicide is happening too often on college campuses. It is unthinkable that suicide is the second leading cause of death in U.S. college students and a high percentage of students who die by suicide have a mental health condition. Clearly they are not getting the help they need. We need a strong community response to address this public health crisis. Effective strategies are needed to make it OK for students to come forward to seek help. No one strategy will work in every case, but colleges and universities must find the right mix of action steps to stem the tide of campus suicides. Enough is enough. We can all help by asking colleges we attended, that our children or family members attend or that are in our communities—what they are doing to help prevent campus suicides.
[See more at: http://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI...sthash.NLOtJSZk.dpuf]
Comments (0)