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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Subject:</b> Ohio State students call for more mental-health services<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.dispatch.com/"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:blue;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="266" height="34" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.png@01D3D690.0EAA8FD0" alt="The Columbus Dispatch"></span></a><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Ohio State students call for more mental-health services<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">By
<a href="mailto:hzachariah@dispatch.com"><span style="color:blue">Holly Zachariah</span></a>
<br>
The Columbus Dispatch <br>
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/hollyzachariah"><span style="color:blue">@hollyzachariah</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Posted at 2:11 PM Updated at 2:11 PM
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Wagner is 18 years old. And he ran out of room on his paper.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">And a freshman student died in a fall from that same parking garage last year. That case was ruled a suicide.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Wagner says that isn’t enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">How to help</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Some of the warning signs that someone may need help:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Talking about wanting to die<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Sleeping too little or too much<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Isolation<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Giving away prized possessions<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Talking about being a burden to others<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Extreme mood swings, reckless behavior<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">What to do</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Take it seriously. Experts say as many as 75 percent of people who attempt suicide tell someone about their intention<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Call 911 if anyone is in immediate danger<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Offer to call a counseling center, or walk with them or drive them there<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Ask directly if a person is thinking about suicide<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Listen and stay present<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Sources: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, OSU Suicide Prevention Program<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“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.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">A call to action</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Granello founded
<a href="https://suicideprevention.osu.edu/"><span style="color:blue">OSU’s Suicide Prevention Program</span></a> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“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.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dave Isaacs, spokesman for Ohio State’s Office of Student Life, under which counseling services fall, said the
budget for the <a href="https://ccs.osu.edu/"><span style="color:blue">university’s counseling center
</span></a>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Those
<a href="https://ccs.osu.edu/schedule-a-phone-screening/"><span style="color:blue">students who reach out and go through the industry-standard screening process</span></a> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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 <a href="https://u.osu.edu/smartlab/">
<span style="color:blue">SMART Lab</span></a> on the fourth floor of the Physical Education and Activities Services building, where Granello’s program operates.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Making sure students know about all those resources is the challenge. Maybe the current conversation will help,
she said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“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.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“We care”</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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:
<i>You are not alone. You are loved. We care.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“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?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“When we say you’ll never walk alone,” Wollett said, “we have to mean it.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.</span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="mailto:hzachariah@dispatch.com"><span style="color:blue">hzachariah@dispatch.com</span></a><br>
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/hollyzachariah" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">@hollyzachariah</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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