[Counselor_Educ] FW: Ohio State students call for more mental-health services

[Bhat, Christine]

Subject: Ohio State students call for more mental-health services

[The Columbus Dispatch]<http://www.dispatch.com/>

Ohio State students call for more mental-health services
By Holly Zachariah<mailto:hzachariah at dispatch.com>
The Columbus Dispatch
@hollyzachariah<http://www.twitter.com/hollyzachariah>
Posted at 2:11 PM Updated at 2:11 PM
New to Ohio State University in the fall, freshman Nick Wagner went to a National Survivors of Suicide Day vigil on campus. There, as a remembrance, he and others were encouraged to write down the names of people they knew who have killed themselves or attempted suicide.
Wagner is 18 years old. And he ran out of room on his paper.
He tries to temper the shock of that by explaining that the slip wasn't very big. Then he stops, realizing that minimizes the impact of a critical issue and that is the last thing he would ever want to do. Especially now.
"I would need more than one hand to just count up the number of my friends who have been hospitalized. People need help, and we have to do a better job on this campus of getting it for them," said Wagner, a sociology and philosophy major who graduated from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati.
That sentiment is his motivation for joining a new group of more than 300 students calling themselves Buckeyes for Mental Health that has formed just since two people - a current student and a former student - separately fell from the top of the Ohio Union South parking garage within a four-day stretch this month. The current student died; the former student was taken to Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and is recovering, Ohio State said Wednesday.
And a freshman student died in a fall from that same parking garage last year. That case was ruled a suicide.
Now, students are asking questions about care and demanding better mental-health services, and OSU President Michael V. Drake has ordered two reviews: how to make the campus garages safer and one of national "best practices" in behavioral health.
Wagner says that isn't enough.
How to help
Some of the warning signs that someone may need help:
Talking about wanting to die
Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
Sleeping too little or too much
Isolation
Giving away prized possessions
Talking about being a burden to others
Extreme mood swings, reckless behavior
What to do:
Take it seriously. Experts say as many as 75 percent of people who attempt suicide tell someone about their intention
Call 911 if anyone is in immediate danger
Offer to call a counseling center, or walk with them or drive them there
Ask directly if a person is thinking about suicide
Listen and stay present
For help for yourself or someone else, call the national suicide-prevention hotline call 800-273-8255; the local hotline is 614-221-5445; you can also text 4HOPE to 741741; Ohio State's counseling center can be reached at 614-292-5766 during regular business hours, and at that number by pressing "Option 2" after hours.
Sources: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, OSU Suicide Prevention Program
"We are not trying to place blame at all on the people in the system," he said. "But this university has stayed silent too long on depression and suicide and mental-health. We need to do a better job."
A call to action
Sitting behind her desk on campus - a desk where the box of tissues is front and center for easy access - Professor Darcy Haag Granello said we have a suicide crisis in this country. Everywhere. And that includes college campuses.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college-aged men and women in the U.S., and there have been 58 documented suicides on OSU's campus since 2000. That's an average of more than three a year.
Granello founded OSU's Suicide Prevention Program<https://suicideprevention.osu.edu/> more than a decade ago and remains director. The phrase that is the linchpin of her program is "create a culture of caring." That means, she said, looking after one another and reaching out, and recognizing early warning signs and being willing to help and intervene.
"We need to listen to what's behind the messages. Everybody's hurting at this university," Granello said. "I think the students can be afraid. They can be afraid 'If I'm in crisis, who will save me?' But if you reach out, we've gotcha."
Wagner said one criticism from this newly-formed group is that the university has too few counselors and that waits for counseling appointments are too long.
Dave Isaacs, spokesman for Ohio State's Office of Student Life, under which counseling services fall, said the budget for the university's counseling center <https://ccs.osu.edu/> has increased from $3.97 million to $5.34 million in two years and the center has increased its staff by a third, to 44 clinicians now. But he pointed out that urgent needs - as opposed to general therapy sessions - will always come first.
Those students who reach out and go through the industry-standard screening process<https://ccs.osu.edu/schedule-a-phone-screening/> and are found to have an urgent need can be seen within a day. For others, those steered to general, one-on-one counseling sessions, the wait this semester has been up to five weeks for an appointment.
Wagner said that is too long. Isaacs, however, said it is important to note that the counseling center, where students can get up to 10 free sessions per academic year, "is not intended to take the place of a person's primary mental-health care. It is intended to supplement or enhance what they may already be getting."
Granello and Isaacs said there are other options, outside of traditional one-on-one counseling, that can be utilized. Every day there are drop-in workshops on campus aimed at dealing with specific stressors (such as anxiety over exams, relationship breakups, or financial pressures), and multiple weekly group sessions. Granello's office runs specific programs targeted to helping the most at-risk populations on campus such as international students, graduate and doctoral students and veterans.
Free, personal wellness sessions are offered at the recreation center as well as wellness coaching and stress management and resiliency-training programs offered through what's known as the SMART Lab<https://u.osu.edu/smartlab/> on the fourth floor of the Physical Education and Activities Services building, where Granello's program operates.
Making sure students know about all those resources is the challenge. Maybe the current conversation will help, she said.
"In the wake of a tragedy - whatever that tragedy is - we have a moment that is a call to action," she said. "We need to remind everyone that we all have a role here today ... that we need to reach out to each other."
"We care"
Tuesday morning, Ronnie Wollett and six students went to the top floor of that parking garage carrying buckets of chalk. There, they fanned out to spread messages of hope. They marked the walls and the ledges with suicide-hotline phones numbers and encouragement. Among the messages Wollett wrote: You are not alone. You are loved. We care.
For him, this is personal. A survivor of suicide himself, the 20-year-old sophomore from Worthington came to campus in the fall and started a group called, "Never Walk Alone," in January.
He said he appreciates the message the university is sending, that people need to be kinder and more aware. But that isn't always enough.
"You can't just be nicer to me and make me feel better," Wollett said. "What about people like me, who have chemical imbalances and need counselors and doctors? What about them?"
He, too, is involved in the newest campus mental-health student group demanding change, and hopes there is power in numbers. His organization has already advocated all semester for things such as a call system, to touch base daily with students on a wait list for counseling sessions, and better advertising of university resources.
"When we say you'll never walk alone," Wollett said, "we have to mean it."
For help for yourself or someone else, call the national suicide-prevention hotline call 800-273-8255; the local hotline is 614-221-5445; you can also text 4HOPE to 741741.
hzachariah at dispatch.com<mailto:hzachariah at dispatch.com>
@hollyzachariah<http://www.twitter.com/hollyzachariah>
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