Triggering: Information Given After Committing Suicide

[Comatose]

To the mods: I'm aware this is about suicide, but I didn't want to trigger anyone in the Suicide and Depression forum. If you think it should be moved there anyway, do so.

Do you think its right that schools (and other places) only give out information about suicide after someone has committed it? Do you think they should make it more aware? How? Explain and discuss your thoughts.


I think that it should be talked about in schools more then it is currently. Schools should be able to make kids feel like they can go to the guidance counselors (or someone else) and confide in them if they are feeling upset. I don't feel like thats an option for a lot of people because they don't like them or don't think they will get the help they need or they'll tell their parents, etc.

I understand giving information out after someone has done it, but making that information available before a tragedy like that happens could help prevent it from happening.

[solost10]

Last year, we had a girl that did not commit suicide but died of a drug overdose and it was the most horrible thing that had ever happened to the school. And the school did absoultly nothing about it and i hated that. They didnt even get a grief counselor. I think that there should definetly be something done not only for suicide deaths but other deaths in the school. R.I.P

[LittleMiss]

When one of my friends died after a fall, my school offered guidance counselling to everyone.

[Brandon]

Do you think its right that schools (and other places) only give out information about suicide after someone has committed it? Do you think they should make it more aware? How? Explain and discuss your thoughts.

To be honest, I don't really understand the question. It depends on what class you're in. If it's Psychology, then I can understand why they would bring up suicide statistics and etc. But a math class or something that's not related to suicide, I think it's a waste of time and un-necessary. I think schools should emphasize more on guidance counselors if they have a problem with anything related to school or whatnot, but as far as teachers going out of their way to state a suicide statistic, especially in a math class or something nonrelated, it scompletely un-necessary.

My school rarely talked about suicide, and that's because they had classes to teach, but when they did...it was in the appropriate classroom. Stating the statistics might help prevent suicides, however I still kind of want your source for that information...

[✖Ice✖]

I believe schools do need to provide professionals for suicide and other situations that students feel they need counselors.

[thebigmole]

I don't think I understand the question either. My senior year of high we had three student deaths in the first two months, 2 suicides and one that died during a routine surgery. Now it was a big school and I had never met any of these kids even though two were in my grade but for the first death which was a suicide I do remember them taking all of the kids they knew were close to the guy go see councelors. And then they told everyone else that the councelors were their if they wanted to talk. I think it was handled well.

[Comatose]

Okay, let me reword it.
Do you think that counselors should be more involved with the student body so they feel like they can get help if needed. And do you think that it should be a point of discussion at some point during the year?

Obviously it shouldn't be talked about in a math class. But I meant in a general sense of telling kids that help is needed, etc.
In a psychology class they should though by teaching them what are the signs and how you can help prevent it, etc.
I don't have statistics, but I said it could help prevent suicides.

[Em...]

I don't know of any suicides in my school since I've been there, and I go to a relatively small high school. I think though that the schools should enforce to students that it's okay to get some help and to talk to someone.

When I visited colleges this past summer, that seemed to be something they emphasized. They said that there was counselling available to anyone going through a rough time.

I think that high school is something a bit harder to go through. You're being into a bigger student union, there are so many more clique's and it's so much easier to feel left out, plus with hormones going crazy. I wish schools emphasized that. I think it would be important to let the students know that it's okay and that everyone needs help at times. They should let students know the signs of depression and when a student may be thinking of suicide. I think it would definitely help prevent suicides from happening.

So basically I'm in support of school counsellors being more involved with the student body.

[Pandamonium]

I think it is a good idea for schools to step in and help students out whenever this kind of situation is experienced. I see it helping tremendously if a school let's it be known that help is available for every student, not just those directly affected.

But schools do need to be careful in terms of how much they discuss about suicides. The how and when shouldn't be focused on as much as the why, since it often leads to students speculating about the whole situation.

The only thing that concerns me though is school officials overstepping their boundaries and hounding students in some cases. I've heard of counselors calling students up far too often and not giving them enough space at times, or getting parents involved when they don't need to be.

[Union Of V]

"But, if we talk to them about suicide, then it'll start giving them ideas! We MUST protect them and keep them ignorent!!"

I think some people need a slap in the face with a large psychology textbook. Just because you feel slightly awkward about something doesn't mean it shouldn't be talked about. It's something that's going to have to be dealt with if we don't want it to get out of hand - if it isn't already, that is.

[Kate*]

I think schools need to provide more support to students for suicide and other things BEFORE the suicide completion/attempt occurs. It shouldn't take a death for people to do something! Also, if it does take a death to bring attention to the subject the focus on the general topic should last for more than a few weeks.

[Brandon]

Okay, let me reword it.
Do you think that counselors should be more involved with the student body so they feel like they can get help if needed. And do you think that it should be a point of discussion at some point during the year?

Obviously it shouldn't be talked about in a math class. But I meant in a general sense of telling kids that help is needed, etc.
In a psychology class they should though by teaching them what are the signs and how you can help prevent it, etc.
I don't have statistics, but I said it could help prevent suicides.

Ah, now I understand.

Do you think that counselors should be more involved with the student body so they feel like they can get help if needed. And do you think that it should be a point of discussion at some point during the year?

My school knew about the counselors and the counselors would of been willing to help them if they came into their office, so I kind of like the way things were when I was in high school. As long as you know that you have a counselor to talk to, that's fine. Honestly, I don't think counselors should go out of their way to offer help to people who are suicidal. To me, if I'm hired to be a guidance counselor, I'd probably expect school-related questions or concerns rather than people who say that they're going to commit suicide. I'd imagine that they're already swamped with stuff already, and I don't think it's really their job to help suicidal people, as much nice as they are. Since it's school, I think it should mostly be strictly related, and if you're suicidal...that's a touchy subject that only a professional whom you pay for that knows what they're talking about and is their specialty.

But I meant in a general sense of telling kids that help is needed, etc.
In a psychology class they should though by teaching them what are the signs and how you can help prevent it, etc.
I don't have statistics, but I said it could help prevent suicides.

I think that as long as the students know that they HAVE counselors, that's enough. Like I said, counselors don't need to go out of their way to offer suicidal help. If you've got a problem, and you know that your school has a counselor, you don't need to be reminded that you have one all the time.

I took my Psychology class my senior year because it was a college course, and only seniors were allowed to take that class. Honestly, I believe that by the time you're a senior, you're out of that depressed stage of life and you don't need any advice on how to prevent suicide or anything like that. I don't think it's necessary for Psychology teachers to teach that sort of information at that age because it's un-necessary, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind answering a suicidal question if you have one.

I wasn't really asking for statistics, I'm just asking where you got the information that suicide statistics could help prevent suicide.

[Kate*]

Originally Posted by Brandon

Honestly, I believe that by the time you're a senior, you're out of that depressed stage of life and you don't need any advice on how to prevent suicide or anything like that. I don't think it's necessary for Psychology teachers to teach that sort of information at that age because it's un-necessary,

I think it's definately necessary considering that the statistics say that 1 in 3 high shool students and 1 in 2 college students considers suicide at some point. Everyone should be taught how to deal with it at some point just in case they need to use it for themselves or someone else.

[Comatose]

Originally Posted by Brandon

My school knew about the counselors and the counselors would of been willing to help them if they came into their office, so I kind of like the way things were when I was in high school. As long as you know that you have a counselor to talk to, that's fine. Honestly, I don't think counselors should go out of their way to offer help to people who are suicidal. To me, if I'm hired to be a guidance counselor, I'd probably expect school-related questions or concerns rather than people who say that they're going to commit suicide. I'd imagine that they're already swamped with stuff already, and I don't think it's really their job to help suicidal people, as much nice as they are. Since it's school, I think it should mostly be strictly related, and if you're suicidal...that's a touchy subject that only a professional whom you pay for that knows what they're talking about and is their specialty.

I think that as long as the students know that they HAVE counselors, that's enough. Like I said, counselors don't need to go out of their way to offer suicidal help. If you've got a problem, and you know that your school has a counselor, you don't need to be reminded that you have one all the time.

I see your point. Counselors are there for school related issues, but they should also be available if students need to talk. They could at least refer them to another counselor outside of school. And no, they don't need to be reminded all the time, but I think reminding students at the beginning of every year and making them feel like they actually can go to the counselors if they really aren't doing well, would be a good idea. Besides, it wouldn't just be about suicide. They could be depressed or stressed out because of school and wanting to commit suicide. Granted, it is going to the extreme, but some kids do get stressed out enough to make them feel like they are buried alive. Yes, this isn't everyone, but still...

Originally Posted by Brandon

I took my Psychology class my senior year because it was a college course, and only seniors were allowed to take that class. Honestly, I believe that by the time you're a senior, you're out of that depressed stage of life and you don't need any advice on how to prevent suicide or anything like that. I don't think it's necessary for Psychology teachers to teach that sort of information at that age because it's un-necessary, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind answering a suicidal question if you have one.

Originally Posted by Brandon

I wasn't really asking for statistics, I'm just asking where you got the information that suicide statistics could help prevent suicide.

Out of the depressed stage? Um, not really, no. Many people who are depressed in highschool deal with it once they are done as well. Especially going into college; that's a whole new battle field that they have to figure out and deal with. Why do you think it is stressed quite a bit that there are counselors on college grounds that students can go to at any time? Whether your depressed, suicidal, or just stressed, you need someone to talk to at some point or your gonna bottle everything up inside and that will just make it all worse.

I agree that students shouldn't be baby'd with the whole counselor thing, but I think it should be stressed a bit more that help is available and your not alone.

Either that, or some schools just need new counselors.

[Comatose]

Originally Posted by Dragonfly88

I think it's definately necessary considering that the statistics say that 1 in 3 high shool students and 1 in 2 college students considers suicide at some point. Everyone should be taught how to deal with it at some point just in case they need to use it for themselves or someone else.

Agreed.
Knowledge is power!

[L'espoir]

Originally Posted by Brandon

I'd imagine that they're already swamped with stuff already, and I don't think it's really their job to help suicidal people, as much nice as they are. Since it's school, I think it should mostly be strictly related

Actually it is a councellors job to help anyone with problems including things like suicide etc. Teachers are the people there to help with school related problems, councellors are to help students with emotions etc.

Originally Posted by Brandon

Honestly, I believe that by the time you're a senior, you're out of that depressed stage of life

There is no particular "depressed stage of life". Depression isn't a stage or anything of the sort. Anyone can get depressed regardless of age, gender, culture or anything else. All in all your post doesn't seem to be correct

[Brandon]

Actually it is a councellors job to help anyone with problems including things like suicide etc. Teachers are the people there to help with school related problems, councellors are to help students with emotions etc.

Maybe for your school, but not mine. My counselors could possibly help you with suicide issues and whatnot, but if you wanted a class changed, or you wanted to discuss your GPA and how you could improve it, that's what my counselors were there for. Teachers were just there for you about class related questions. I guess it varies between schools.

Still, I don't see a point in telling suicide statistics. In Pep-rallys for freshmen, I'd just be like "if you got any problems, just go to a counselor and they'll help you out", I don't need to be like "if you wanna commit suicide, look at the statistics. This is how you prevent it...blah blah blah", I think that's the counselor's job if you have that sort of question.

There might not be a depressed stage of life, which I believe, but "everyone, will at some time in their life be affected by depression" (http://www.upliftprogram.com/depression_stats.html) so at the same time, maybe there's not a depressed stage of life when you're young, which I guess is my personal opinion to believe that a lot of kids feel depressed and want to kill themselves when they're young, but eventually you'll probably go through a stage of life where you'll be depressed.

I think it's definately necessary considering that the statistics say that 1 in 3 high shool students and 1 in 2 college students considers suicide at some point. Everyone should be taught how to deal with it at some point just in case they need to use it for themselves or someone else.

Counselors should have that information memorized until a student comes in wanting some advice on suicide, but I still don't think that teachers should go out of there way to say a statistic that's irrelevant to their class. Just tell the students at a school, hey, if you got a problem, go see the counselor. Let students know that they can get some emotional help. No need to bring it up again when you already know that counselors are there.

[BECCALICIOUS!]

I think the subject of suicide should come up in the subject of health classes - and it does, at least, in my school. We're pretty informed of things around here. The health classes watch a suicide video and there's a chapter about it in the book. I also go to a Catholic HS and it's mentioned in our 9th grade Morality book.

Also, we have guidance counsellors AND an adjustment counsellor and I've talked to both about serious issues as such. So I'm not sure if awareness is really a problem, but that's only because I'm fortunate enough to go to a school that DOES talk about these things.

[Casey.]

Don't schools have assemblies? To me it would make sense if they talked about depression and suicide during a school assembly before something happens. I know some schools do talk about suicide, they have yellow ribbon days and national suicide prevention days, but that's in very few schools that I'm aware of. Colleges are better, in suicide prevention and open counseling.

[Grizabella]

I think in my school it was made pretty clear to students that if they were having problems, we had a counsellor available for them to speak to. For the ones who didn't utilize it, it usually wasn't an issue of them not knowing help was available, but being unwilling to use it, for a variety of reasons. It would be great if school counsellors could be more involved with their students, but sometimes there's just too many students per counsellor. At my high school, we had 3 guidance counsellors for academic issues, like switching classes or getting tutoring or whatever, and one social worker. The social worker was responsible for 3 high schools in our city - so one social worker for approximately 4000 students. That makes it literally impossible for her to be involved and familiar with every student. Pretty much they had to rely on teachers being able to spot students potentially struggling with personal issues, and inform the social worker. It works sometimes, but if you want to keep your problems from someone, you can get incredibly good at hiding things.

[losing touch.]

i don't think schools need to make a massive point of talking about suicide.. perhaps if someone in the school comits suicide then they will talk about it more to prevent others from following that person. at my college it's pretty good, because you know the support is there if you want it but it's not shoved in your face all the time.

[yerstarr]

i think in the afternoon announcements they should say ... john skull has lost their life last week in a tragic car crash .... students please keep safe on the roads and in other newss... and so one. people should be notified whether we knew them or not/

[hopefaithlove]

It depends on the school. I think this has to do with deaths of a student in general. When my friend died in December, after we got back from break, we had an assembly about grief and such and then each homeroom had a grief counselor come in and talk to them. I went to a school where everyone knew each other and we were all somewhat close. They also offered grief counselors for the next week and our normal guidance counselors were there. I think that they did a great job helping the students cope.

[Gidig]

At our school, they have a ton of greif counselors come in, and there's a room where if you don't feel like going to class you can stay there and be with friends/talk to a counselor.

It doesn't help anyone in my opinion.

Information does get out, but not always correctly. I feel the school should give out the correct information. I mean, the stories going around about a girl who commited suicide were insane, and I'd have been pissed if I were her. Rumors suck.

[Kate*]

Originally Posted by Gidig

Information does get out, but not always correctly. I feel the school should give out the correct information. Rumors suck.

A lot of times though they withhold information because of an investigation or out of respect for the family's privacy. Even still I think they need to give accurate infromation a lot faster than they do because the longer they wait, even if it is for good reasons, the worse the rumors get. Also, the people who don't start/buy into rumors and want to know the truth (like me) get frustrated because they just want to know what happened.

[Elizabeth]

About three weeks ago, a girl at my school committed suicide. We did not know that she had committed suicide at first. It was thought that she had fallen, but they have now found a suicide note.

They offered counseling in our school library for a week. They didn't bring up the fact that if you were feeling suicidal, it was ok to come in and talk to someone outside of that week. I don't think they needed to. Most everyone knows.

[InSovietRussiaORGASMGotU]

I think more information should be given about suicide because chances are many of the kids don't really have much say on it or don't find it serious. When you present it to them, whether it's in an assembly or elsewhere and when you don't butter it up but show the damage that it can cause, then it gets out to others more.

As for the counselors, the problem I've seen in high-school is the stigmatism when someone went to the counselor for a problem regarding suicide. The student may not want to go to see the counselor because they're afraid of being made public or the counselor may not know exactly what to do if they haven't had much experience with that.

I do feel that the counselors should be more involved up to a certain degree. Usually, there's not a lot of counselors and a whole lot of students so it's hard for the counselors to be more involved with everyone. Also, being more involved would likely lead to the counselor seeing how a certain student is doing if they suspect something is wrong and the counselor may be hard-pressed to help the student while ensuring that they've available for however many hundreds of other students. I also feel that the counselors shouldn't become too nosy because it could easily lead to the counselors assuming something is wrong with the kid when there really isn't or it could lead to invasions of privacy, plethora of rumours, etc... .

So I think that it's good to have counselors available, however, information should also be given out so as to make students more willing to seek help when needed. It could also be good for the possible signs to be discussed, especially if it's a psychology class.

With all that being said, I wouldn't want the information constantly blared at you. If there's a suicide incident or attempted suicide, then perhaps give the information. Perhaps giving information at the beginning of school could be useful but other than that, I wouldn't say to have it blared very often. Perhaps there could even be a few posters around the office of the counselor to show some of the main things that students can see the counselor for.

[Gidig]

I think a lot should be done as well to make it clear that while this person was a good amazing person, there were other choices she should have had.

My first serious attempt was after a girl in my school had killed herself and I got the idea that if she could do it, so could I. That I saw her everyday and now she's gone, and I could be like that too. Perhaps if someone had spoken to me about what other options were out there, I may have listened. Who knows. But it's worth a try. I know I'm not the only person who has felt this way either.