[YSPNetwork] mtvU anti-suicide campaign - Long Beach Press

Fri Jan 26 09:45:54 PST 2007

YSPNetworkers, 
 
Suicide prevention messages on MTV for college students:  
 
Thoughts of suicide
By Valerie Kuklenski, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 12/03/2006 07:27:25 PM PST


                					var requestedWidth = 0;                				
 0){									document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px";                					document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px";                				}                			In only an hour, a college co-ed had her first thoughts about suicide and then tried to kill herself. 
Why? She had just learned her grade-point average would drop below a 4.0 for the first time. 
"She was simply not prepared for that experience. She had never 'failed' in her life," said Dr. Michael J. Bradley, a Philadelphia teen psychologist. "So she goes from being this incredible kid to attempting to kill herself over that kind of trauma." 
Suicide is believed to be the No. 2 cause of death among college students, according to the National Mental Health Association. Nearly 1,100 students kill themselves each academic year on U.S. college campuses. The actual number likely is higher because it excludes student deaths away from campuses and those not conclusively deemed suicides, such as solo traffic accidents and drug overdoses. 
And as in the case Bradley cited, there are no real statistics on attempts. 
December is a particularly tough month, experts say, as students face final exams without the light at the end of the tunnel that spring testing offers, and freshmen reckon with their first grade report. 
MTV's campus-telecast mtvU network last month launched a television and online public service campaign aimed at encouraging troubled students to recognize their problems and seek help through their health offices or other crisis services. The campaign and its Web site are called "Half of Us," a reference to the nearly 50 percent of students who reported in an October survey that they have at some time been so depressed they could not function. 
The network is seen in cafeterias, student unions, fitness rooms and other common areas of about 750 schools nationwide, including USC, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and Cal State campuses in Northridge and Los Angeles. 
The public service spots, also available on the halfofus.com site, show students in everyday settings * a sports locker room, a professor's office, on the phone with parents * and the types of situations that can trigger suicidal thoughts. They urge preventive measures, with prominent links on the site directing students to their own campus counseling service. 
They also aim to put down the stigma associated with psychological treatment, which remains a major issue even among young adults. 
The study, which mtvU commissioned, showed 77 percent of students would not want their friends to know they were in counseling for emotional problems, and 54 percent of students would not seek such help because they are afraid their friends and roommates would find out about it. 
"I think what amazed us in the focus group was the pervasiveness of the stigma and the fact that the very words 'mental health' equals 'crazy' in the minds of college kids," said Stephen Friedman, general manager of mtvU. 
Bradley, author of "Yes, Your Teen is Crazy" and "The Heart & Soul of the Next Generation," said today's students are under a great deal of stress and often are ill-equipped to cope with it, in part because of parents who have pushed them in school and fought their battles for them, from arguing with a coach about too much time on the bench to threatening legal action against a teacher over a grade. 
"Parents have to remember they're not in the business of raising Ivy League students. They're in the business of raising the parents of their grandchildren," Bradley said. "It's just a matter of helping kids accrue wisdom, resilience, strength, and that has to do with dealing with life, with failure, with losing, and then getting back up and getting in the game." 
Donna Satow knows too well the suffering suicide causes. Her son, Jed, was a 20-year-old sophomore on Dec. 29, 1998, when he committed suicide. She and husband, Phil, took that very painful lesson and created the Jed Foundation, which is partnering with mtvU on the Half of Us campaign. Its Web site includes a self-evaluation screening to help students assess their own needs or those of a close friend. 
"These young-adult suicides have such long arms," she said. "They affect so many students and so many people. Any death is a terrible thing, but it's a complicated experience on a college campus." 
Bradley says recent research indicates that about half of college suicides are 60-minute processes, from the first thought to the act itself. 
"That appears to be a function of the acceleration of young people's worlds, that things move so quickly that the technology seems to outpace their ability to be resilient," Bradley said. 
In other words, the same desire for instant gratification that prompts impulsive purchases or meaningless sexual conduct can have deadly consequences. 
For those suffering from longer bouts of depression or other mental issues, parents can spot warning signs, Bradley said. 
"Often parents say, 'Her eyes look different to me,' or 'She's not smiling anymore, she's not playing with the dog, she's not interacting with her little brother,' " he said. "What parents should do is ask straight up. A lot of parents say, 'I didn't want to ask; I didn't want to put the thought in her mind.' Well, I tell you, the thought is already in her mind. Kids talk about (suicide) all the time. 
"So parents should straight up ask, 'Honey, are you thinking of hurting yourself?' Often kids are waiting to be asked that question because there's almost always a voice inside a potential suicider who does not want to die and is looking for somebody to say, 'Hey, are you in trouble?' 
"People think there's some trick to getting people to admit they're suicidal. The trick is saying: 'Tell me, are you suicidal?' And more times than not, people will answer that honestly." 
Some kids may be looking for their parents' tacit or clear permission to get counseling, Bradley said. They need reassurance that their family approves of treatment. 
"A lot of this suicide education, I know it's aimed at kids, but it really ought to be aimed at parents to help them understand that suicide for this generation of kids is anywhere from three to five times the rate of what it was for the parents' generation," Bradley said. "So it's a new world." 
"There's a huge opportunity to send a wake-up call and use the channel very much as a megaphone to alert them that their friends are going through it, and at the local level there's help," mtvU's Friedman said. "The infrastructure is there. It's just not being used." 
"It's a great thing MTV is doing, I have to say," Satow of the Jed Foundation said. "They're very bold to take this on. And I think they're going to help thousands and thousands and thousands of students. A very little bit of help will go a very long way." 
---
Valerie Kuklenski, (818) 713-3750 
valerie.kuklenski at dailynews.com
You can find the websites listed at http://www.halfofus.com/ and http://www.jedfoundation.org/. I have attached a copy of the press release that gives more information about the suicide prevention campaign. 
Have a great weekend. Donna
Donna G. Noonan, MPH, CHES
Youth Suicide Prevention Coordinator
Injury Prevention & Epidemiology Program
Oregon Public Health Division
800 NE Oregon, Ste 772
Portland, OR 97232
NEW PHONE NO.:  Phone: 971-673-1023 
NEW FAX NO. Fax 971-673-0990
donna.noonan at state.or.us
http://oregon.gov/dhs/ph/ipe/ysp/index.shtml
Join YSPNetwork, Youth Suicide Prevention listserv for the Pacific Northwest at http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/yspnetwork


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