Student Suicide

On October 5, 2016, Fowlerville High School freshman, Brendan Kangas, committed suicide. His whole school and community was struck with grief, previously unaware of Brendan’s battle with depression. The next day school was held on schedule, and it was a very unproductive day. According to the faculty, kids were crying in classrooms, and uninstructed teachers did not know how to handle the situation (Brent). Many Fowlerville students have struggled academically, unable to cope with the news of Brendan’s death. Fowlerville was not prepared to handle such a crisis and administrators were unaware of the effect Brendan’s suicide would have on the school. Since then, several other students in Brendan’s community have attempted to take their lives as well (Brent). Suicide has not only a problem in

Mental health among college students has been proven to be a relevant social issue that our society faces. There are certainly a few different institutions that play a large role within the development of this social issue. The first institution, and the primary institution at play with this issue, is the higher education system. In terms of mental health and having access to resources, college students haven’t always been as lucky as they are today. One study in 2007 explains the story of Junior at Syracuse University (Kravets, 3081). Anita Rutman had a history of mental health issues; she even found herself being admitted to a mental health hospital. One morning in February, she threw herself off of the eighth floor of Boland Hall and landed on a patio and fortunately lived. However, her attempt stemmed from the university sending her letter three days prior that informed Anita that the school was planning to dismiss her because of her suicidal tendencies (Kravets, 3081). Anita later sued Syracuse for ten million dollars for malpractice and negligence in handling her condition.

Deadlines, Midterms, finals, papers, all while trying to have a social life can become overwhelming. According college degree search, there are 1,100 suicides at colleges per year. That’s 7.5 per 100,000 students. It has been proven by research being a college today student is much harder than in the 1950’s. College students encounter a great deal of problems, such as depression, time management, and having personal relationships.

The current suicide rate among 15- to 24-year olds is quite disturbing. Growing in numbers since 2007, the latest toll taken in 2013 on suicide within college settings is 11.1 deaths per 100,000 people (Scelfo, 2015). According to the article Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection, Pennsylvania State University had six students commit suicide in a 13-month stretch (Scelfo, 2015). Suicide within college settings are usually linked with severe depression. As mentioned by Kevin Breel in the Confessions of a Depressed Comic Ted Talk, depression is not sadness, real depression is being sad when everything in your life is going right and this, this I can personally relate to.

Depression, anxiety, and suicide are relatively common phenomena among college students (Klerman & Weissman, 1989; Twenge et al., 2010).

Suicide is the final part of the chain and with the information that has been shown, statistically, the more a student continues to fight in their education, the more likely they are to take their lives away. Cris Brownson and all the other authors, write about suicide within college students in “Distress and Suicidality in Higher Education: Implications for Population-Oriented Prevention Paradigms.” Suicide is second most common death within college students according to this paper and the authors want to know why this is to explain to the audience the type of problems college students typically go through. A bunch of students from University of Texas Austin were sampled to find out about their mental health history and found that a 26% of students have considered suicide at least once in their lives, 22% of undergraduate and 18% of graduate students have seriously considered suicide, and 7% of undergraduates and 5% of graduate students have attempted suicide at least once in their lives. It was also reported that 73% of these students most stressful times were because of academic reason, which branch off to financial problems, school work, relationship problems, ect. It also shows that alcohol and drugs play a major role in suicide since students will try overdosing with alcohol and drugs to try to take away their own lives. It was originally

as likely to die from suicide than a teenager growing up in 1960. One of the

Expert Frank Bruni created a believable article stressing the idea that teens overstress over anything that regards to school, whether it be their grades, stride to follow in the expectations of others and themselves, being active, staying in sports, or attending every club a school may offer. I believe in this article due to its use of statistical evidence from other schools and colleges as well as Bruni’s personal experience. The article does have one major hitch that holds it back from becoming credible to most. This hitch is the lack of statistical evidence from a variety of other schools and backgrounds.

In 2004 Congress enacted the Campus Suicide Prevention initiative which provides funds through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Mental Health Services, to college campuses nationwide (Smulson, 2016). The Campus Suicide Prevention initiative supports program activities, mental health screening services, and prevention strategies to form a foundation for mental health promotion, suicide prevention, and substance abuse prevention (Smulson, 2016). While research shows that mental and behavioral health supports can improve student life and functioning, the program falls short in some areas.

Addressing a critical issue which is suicide is happening in college students because they get depressed and overwhelmed with work, kids and homework. Suicide is not only happening to college students; it is happening to teens and adults. Underlying causes, explaining what causes teens, college students and adults to become depressed and suicidal. Accessing care includes how they can help college students not become overwhelmed and suicidal. Prevention, preventing suicide from college students. It says in the article how to prevent college students from committing suicide and how to get help. Even so, suicide remains the second leading cause of death for college students, as it has been since the 1950s (Iarovici).

Cases of mental illness in colleges are growing. There is a increasing number of students in colleges, and with that an increasing number of students developing a mental illness. The hypothesis is that first year students from low income and lower social statuses are developing serious mental illnesses as a result of the high demands of college course loads and as a result are relying on dangerous methods of coping. The project will focus on the following:

Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental health problems on college campuses. Forty million U.S. adults suffer from an anxiety disorder, and 75 percent of them experience their first episode of anxiety by age 22. In addition, a 2008 Associated Press and mtvU survey of college students found the following: 80 percent say they frequently or sometimes experience daily stress, 34 percent have felt depressed at some point in the past three months, 13 percent have been diagnosed with a mental health condition such as an anxiety disorder or depression, 9 percent have seriously considered suicide in the past year. (Facts)

Depression and anxiety among college students is something that experts have focused on for the past twenty years. The information they have been gathering ranges from the different stressors of college life to the effects of one's culture on how they deal with depression or anxiety symptoms. They have identified a few core characteristics of depression and thoughts of suicide. These are both serious concepts in which people need to seek help for. It is important for students to reach out to friends, family, or professionals to support them during this time. Many campuses offer counseling centers which are seeing many more people over the past few years.

Campus mental health statistics paint an alarming picture of the incidence of suicide rates on college campuses and by some measures they are getting worse. Almost one in three students have admitted to considering suicide. Mental health needs on campus are real and serious, they are also growing, which is

average are not questioned about their ability to achieve their career path, but those with a grade point average less than a 4.0 are questioned about their decisions as well as their overall career path. Simic-Vukomanovic asserts that with these occurrence individuals are less likely to pursue a career that makes them happy due to a lack of support. This lack of support disables their mental health causing depression and/or anxiety (171). While a student’s grades are an important factor to their success at the university, pressure is also being placed on the students to succeed in other categories such as community and campus involvement. Once the advisor has evaluated the student’s performance, the student is advised accordingly. If a student is earning grades that are not of optimal performance, they are socially ranked below a student who is earning optimal grades. In turn this could lead to discrimination within the academic institution. While grades are an important factor in measuring success in an academic setting, this discrimination could potentially lead to inequality in the way a particular student is regarded by students and staff affecting their overall academic success.