Suicide prevention bill aimed to help college students

SEEKING HELP

Miami Unviersity Student Counseling Service: 513-529-4634

University of Cincinnati’s 24-hour helpline: 513-556-0648

Wright State’s helpline: 855-224-2887

Butler County 24-hour crisis hotline: 844-427-4747

Warren and Clinton counties crisis hotline: 877-695-NEED (6333)

Montgomery County’s Samaritan Crisis Care: 937-224-4646

Helplines for Mental Health & Recovery Board of Clark, Greene and Madison counties:

National Suicide Lifeline: 800-273-TALK (8255)

Help apps:

HOUSE BILL 28

House Bill 28 was introduced in the bill would require all higher education institutions to:

Source: The Ohio Legislature

Last spring, 21-year-old Brogan Dulle, of Cincinnati, committed suicide.

The University of Cincinnati student was found in the basement next door to his apartment, presumably there since he went missing on May 18, 2014, until he was found eight days later on May 26. The Hamilton County Coroner’s office said he died due to asphyxiation, and there were no signs of foul play.

While the “whys” to Dulle’s death likely won’t be answered, he puts a face on the statistics that show suicide as the third-leading cause of death among college students, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Students with suicidal tendencies have resources at their disposal at the University of Cincinnati in Clifton, as well as Miami University in Oxford. But not all institutions of higher education have programs and policies, including 24-hour hotlines, for their students. House Bill 28, which was introduced by Rep. Marlene Anielski, R-Walton Hills, earlier this month, would ensure just that.

HB 28 will also be one of the first pieces of legislation considered by the Community and Family Advancement Committee, a new House committee that’s the brainchild of Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Hanover Twp. And this proposed bill is a prime example of the types of legislation he hopes will come before his committee.

“Suicide prevention is an issue that impacts both families and their communities,” said Derickson, chair of the Community and Family Advancement Committee. “We look forward to learning how we can best address and prevent suicides in our state.”

HB 28 addresses students that live on and off their college campus, and Anielski’s House office report of the 141 Ohio colleges surveyed, said some were doing “fantastic” in providing suicide prevention assistance to students and some “have absolutely nothing.” The bill is designed to provide a baseline for all institutions of higher education to have something available.

Kip Alishio, Miami University’s director of Student Counseling Services, said Derickson had reached out to him about the bill. Alishio said the bill is “well-intended” and designed to “help there be an increase in awareness in suicidal prevention,” but it’s something that larger institutions like Miami and UC are already doing, and smaller colleges around the state may not be able to afford.

“They have such small resources to have the staff … and that’s where the help is needed,” he said.

Alishio also would like to see suicide prevention programs for other areas in society. While it’s a third-leading cause of death among college students, those outside of college are at a higher risk.

Suicide ranks as the 11th highest cause of death, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. And in Ohio, suicide cost the state more than $1.7 billion of combined lifetime medical and work loss costs in 2010, according to the foundation.

In Ohio, more than 26 percent of 1,533 suicides that occurred in 2012 — the last available data from the Ohio Department of Health — were by people ages 15 to 34, which incorporates college-aged students. Of this population in Southwest Ohio and the Miami Valley in 2012:

While Alishio wouldn’t call suicide among college students an epidemic, it is an important issue because the college-aged population is more susceptible because their “ability to cope is not as developed as older adults.”

“(Suicide is) something that is preventable, and it usually comes out of a sense of desperation, and whatever feelings they’re having at the time cannot be coped with and are not going to change,” he said. “And the reality is that suicidal thoughts change over time the longer they hang on to them. They do diminish.”

In a given year, around 10 percent of Miami’s student population uses the school’s Student Counseling Services, which he said is about 1,700 students. About 8 to 10 percent will “seriously consider” suicide and about 1 percent will attempt it, Alishio said.

The most susceptible age range for suicide, according to the Ohio Department of Health data, are those from 45 to 54. More than 21 percent of Ohioans who committed suicide in 2012 were in this age range. The highest range of suicides in Southwest Ohio and the Miami Valley in 2012, are:

Though it’s the number three cause of death among college students, “it’s a relatively small occurrence,” said Robert Rando, Wright State University’s assistant vice president of Health and Wellness. He said usually it’s because a student doesn’t see any other option “and sees suicide as an option.”

“It’s about 25 percent of (Wright State) students that have some sort of suicidal ideation,” he said, adding suicide intent, where they are seriously considering carrying the act out, is between 4 to 6 percent.

Wright State’s Counseling and Wellness Services sees about 800 students in a year. The student population at the Dayton-area school is around 17,000.

“Most people think about suicide at least once in their life,” he said. “But that’s a lot different than acting on it.”

Tow Yau, University of Cincinnati’s director of Counseling and Psychology Services, said there are many factors why a college student may commit or attempt to commit suicide, including untreated symptoms of depression. He said untreated depression is the leading cause of why college students attempt suicide because they “feel hopeless and helpless, and feeling hopeless and helpless can make them want to end their lives because they don’t see a future.”

Over the last 10 to 15 years, and especially in the past five to 10, the amount of suicidal tendencies and emotional distress among college students have risen. It could be, he said, tied to the rise in technology. Yau said coming to college can be “very overwhelming,” especially if students are from a small school or town coming to a university with more than 43,000 students like U.C.

“College students are tied to technology with gadgets, social media, and if they encounter difficulties, they may be at a loss in terms of what to do,” he said.

Then if they have an undiagnosed mental illness, hopelessness and helplessness can set in.

Yau’s department helps on average 1,600 to 1,700 students a year, and he said about 30 percent of those helped reported having suicidal thoughts in the past three weeks of contacting the department. “That’s high,” he said.

And 10 percent of clients had attempted suicide before seeking treatment, Yau said.

The University of Cincinnati has conducted “a lot of training” for staff and faculty in areas of identifying students who may have some type of distressing symptoms. But Yau said, “We need to do more.”

The House Community and Family Advancement Committee will have its first hearing on House Bill 28 on March 3 where members will hear sponsor testimony.