<p>Yesterday morning, a student from Switzerland fell to his death from a dorm at my daughters school.
They have ruled it a suicide, saying his injuries are consistent with a fall from the roof.
Very sad. The young man had only just started this qtr, three weeks ago.
Texted my daughter when I heard about it, but I dont expect a reply.</p>
<p>I did have a really bad dream yesterday morning, however, so that has freaked me out a little bit.
I wish someone would do an awareness campaign for depression, like Dan Savage has done for the GLBT community.
It does get better.</p>
<p>
THIS! TWLOHA (To Write Love on Her Arms) is a good start, but to be effective (and especially to really get that message out to vulnerable teens and young adults), a social media campaign of some sort would be best!</p>
<p>check out [DEPRESSION:</a> Out of the Shadows . PBS](<a href=“http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/takeonestep/depression/index.html]DEPRESSION:”>DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows . PBS) – won a Peabody award. It was a very good start to creating awareness.</p>
<p>I think they should start talking about mental illness along with sex education. And there should be less stigma attached to getting help. We live in a society where you’re supposed to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and deal with things, which doesn’t help a sad, downhearted teen all alone away at school. </p>
<p>The tough part is: getting the right message to the right people at the right time – how do you reach these kids when they’re spiralling downwards, and they think the only way out of their pain is to jump?</p>
<p>I shoved a bunch of pamphlets about depression in my dd’s hand, while we where at the doctors office, back in the summer before college started. I told her to get an idea of what depression really is and keep and eye on herself and her fellow students. People are just so affraid to intervene but that is one of the best ways to get a student help. Young people killing themselves is beyond sad.</p>
<p>My daughter found out a friend of hers was talking about suicide so she e-mailed his mom and ended up talking to her on the phone. She also had a roommate last year who seemed depressed and she contacted her RA about that. I think the kids are more on top of this than when we were their age.</p>
<p>I believe your daughter’s university does do a good job of conducting suicide awareness/prevention campaigns, though unfortunately in this situation it was not enough. The president of the university lost his son to suicide and is committed to open discussions about depression, prevention programs, etc… It is very unfortunate that the student who died was so new to the university, as he could have really benefitted from campus mental health initiatives and institutional efforts around suicide prevention.</p>
<p>Thanks for mentioning TWLOHA, born2dance. I hadn’t heard of it.
They have chapters in some universities, & they are going to have a booth at Deluna fest in Florida.
[TWLOHA</a> University Chapters](<a href=“http://twlohauchapters.■■■■■■■■■■/]TWLOHA”>http://twlohauchapters.■■■■■■■■■■/)</p>