The event featured 3,000 paper people — one for each life lost to suicide daily — strung across Hornbake Plaza and scrawled with students’ hopeful messages.
Family. Future. Dubstep. Crazy sweaters. Hope.
Scribbled on paper people and strung across Hornbake Plaza, these messages stated the good things in life.
Each of the paper people represented one life lost to suicide every day. And there were 3,000 different pieces blowing in the wind at the Help Center’s first “Reasons I Live” event yesterday.
Depression troubles about twice as many college students as average Americans, according to the National College Health Assessment, and a university study stated about 10 percent of college students have considered suicide.
Yesterday’s event showed that while there are many reasons students should live, those grappling with depression and suicidal thoughts are not alone — and there is help readily available, organizers said.
“We wanted to address rates of suicide worldwide and kind of have an event that started a dialogue around suicide,” Help Center Administrator Margaret-Ellen Johnson said. “We wanted to have an event that is attention-grabbing but inspiring in the same way.”
This semester, the University Health Center’s mental health services department has seen a 20 percent increase in total patients, and a 50 percent increase in those seeking urgent care for psychological problems, according to health center mental health services Triage Coordinator Jeri Boliek. In addition, the Help Center and the university’s Counseling Center offer free services.
“I feel like there’s a lot of stigma around reaching out,” said Johnson, a senior psychology major. “It does involve someone being brave enough to start that conversation, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Getting students to seek help is often the key to preventing more serious situations, Boliek said.
That is why when the health center adopted a third-party billing system in August — causing fees for medical visits to rise from $15 to more than $100 —officials opted to keep the cost for mental health visits at $15, an expense Boliek said the center also waives if students are unable to pay.
“Generally after the first meeting, they are feeling better … just that opportunity to finally talk about it and know that there is hope,” Boliek said. “The majority of people, they say, once they’ve had that first opportunity to talk are much less likely to feel suicidal.”
Angela Ranganathan, a junior elementary education major who organized yesterday’s event, said she wanted students to know there is no shame in seeking help. She said one of her friends committed suicide, and she grappled with the pain of the sudden loss.
“I saw the effect that it had on friends, family members of the person,” Ranganathan said. “It’s impacted my life and it continues to impact it today, and it just really upsets me to know that people hide their feelings of immense sadness.”
Many students who stopped by the event — which included a trivia wheel and information on the university’s mental health services — said the display was had an impact.
“It’s nice to see it all laid out,” junior chemical engineering major Indraja Karnik said. “This issue is something people don’t think about usually, so to have it displayed brings it to people’s attention.”
“If someone who is suicidal walks by, this can give them a reason to live,” plant science graduate student Chioma Ebiringa said.
Staff writer Maria Romas contributed to this report.
meehan@umdbk.com
