Head of U Penn (former head of Cornell)’s counseling/psych services suicides

Our cleaners are in both times. Or it could have been an office worker. In any event, someone to state definitively how the event occurred.

I WISH our cleaning crew came in more than once!

And yes, since there was no note left, unless perhaps he called his wife or mother or someone before he jumped, there may have been a witness in the building. Plenty of people go into their offices early.

Why are people assuming this was an office building?

From the article:

It looks very commercial around there, but I assume there has been residential infill. Odd place for a 52 year old to be living in my opinion, but I don’t know the area specifically.

Good catch, @dropbox77177 ! Besides, most office/commercial highrises don’t typically have windows one can open.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/100+S+Broad+St,+Philadelphia,+PA+19110/@39.9501902,-75.1641366,3a,75y,314h,137.61t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s66Qz4PwZadYGqgdmKMcbTw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c6c62f942966f9:0x9af5dfcbb9fba840!8m2!3d39.9502943!4d-75.1645249 google view of buildings on that block (I hope/assume this is allowed to be posted)

There have to be a lot of security cameras in the area that recorded his death.

Except for the Union League, the whole block is substantial old office buildings, including some that 50 years ago were among the most prestigious addresses in the city. (One of them was used as the set for the rich investment bank in the movie Trading Places.)

Looking on the map, though, one of the buildings has been converted to residential. It’s the building that has The Capital Grille in its street-level storefront. I wasn’t aware of that before, but it’s apparently a building with a lot of short-term rentals for corporate relocations. That must have been the place.

Looking at the Capital Grille building, it looks like the 17th floor might be the penthouse level… or the roof! :frowning:

If it is the Griffin Center City Apartments on Chestnut St, it looks like they have an outdoor (rooftop?) pool area with lounge chairs and a relatively low, perhaps waist high glass wall :frowning: http://griffinphilly.com/?utm_source=GoogleLocalListing&utm_medium=organic

The Capital Grille building and Griffin Center City Apartments are the same building - the former Avenue of the Arts Building. It was sold and converted about 5 years ago. The 17th floor is apartments; the rooftop is the next level.

and another suicide https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/megachurch-pastor-jarrid-wilson-known-his-mental-health-advocacy-dies-n1052301

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So sad, for both men.

Maybe but even so people don’t commit suicide unless they have their own underlying mental health issues

What is puzzling to me is not that he may’ve had depression or other mental health issues. Psychologists are human and suffer from the same things we all do. It’s that he had experience and access to resources - his job was to help people who are exactly that - suicidal - and yet he did not use those resources himself.

I am not in any way blaming the victim here, I am pointing out how invasive depression and some mental health issues can be, that someone with all of his professional knowledge can’t even follow through on conventional advice.

I also know a funeral director who died by suicide. I felt similarly, that he had seen the consequences of suicide professionally, yet still could not pull himself out of the depth. (Although in his case, it appeared to be “out of the blue.” No history of depression, no one saw any signs etc)

If you’ve never experienced clinical depression and/or suicidal ideation, it’s hard to understand how difficult connecting with help can be. Not that it isn’t available, but the profound fatigue, inertia, and hopelessness really work against forward action. I expect many mental health professionals have come to the profession through their own journey, much as substance abuse counselors are often former addicts.

Our local high school just created new ID cards (students have to carry them to swipe in every day-- literally, you can’t get in the building without one) that have the local and national suicide hotline numbers in bold on the back, along with the “QRP” reminder : Question, Refer, Promise

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I’ve posted about this several times recently, but “Sources of Strength” is a NAMI program for suicide prevention in high schools. https://sourcesofstrength.org/ I think it’s excellent. If you truly want to make a difference, contact your state NAMI office about it and then call your local school district’s counselors and social workers. That’s what I did, and the program will be in my kids’ former school soon. People CAN make a difference, instead of just talking about how sad everything is. And I’m pretty sure nobody reading this will take the suggestion. :frowning:

There have been a lot of programs over past years, but have any of them been shown to work? Doesn’t the suicide rate keep rising? I note that in my area there are a lot of local-origin programs. If any of them actually worked, I’m that program/s would become nationally used.