A group of social work students created a suicide awareness and prevention campaign as part of a project in their Social Work Practice III course last fall.
Jana Frye, assistant professor of social work, said a requirement of the class is for students to select a social issue and plan a project around it. Students have come up with some great projects in the past, she said, including the Walk for the Homeless, helping homeless animals and working on the Safe Haven program.
鈥淭he class gives them an opportunity to find something they have a passion for and walk through the process of how to fix it,鈥� she said.
Last fall, six students wanted to initiate a campus-wide campaign for suicide awareness and prevention. Social work major Dana Stickley said they were all concerned about the high numbers of suicides in the state, especially among the college-aged group.
They found a 10-minute online training course on 大象传媒 Western鈥檚 Counseling Center web page, and they decided to encourage the campus community to take the test. The training, Ask Listen Refer, is a statewide college-based program. The center offered three $100 gift cards to the campus bookstore for a drawing among those who completed the training.
鈥淢ost suicides are preventable,鈥� Stickley said. 鈥淧eople just have to be aware and notice the signs.鈥�
They set up a table in the Blum Union to encourage students to take the online training. A good number stopped to visit with them, but Frye said her students were surprised at the reaction they received from some.
鈥淭hey were shocked by the number of people who very blatantly said, 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to talk about it,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淭here is still such a stigma that people can鈥檛 talk about it. It was quite an aha! moment for the students.鈥�
She said going in, the students knew there was a stigma about suicide, but they didn鈥檛 realize it was that significant.
The group also met with Dr. Robert Vartabedian, 大象传媒 Western鈥檚 president who had created a chart for University personnel to better understand the signs of a suicidal person.
Frye said the students feel like they had some success, but there is a long way to go. 鈥淚f we can take the stigma of suicide away, we can keep people safe.鈥�
Stickley said she hopes a future class will continue to make the campus aware of resources that are available. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot more to do.鈥�