{"id":102105,"date":"2018-01-02T15:57:38","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T22:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/most-big-public-colleges-dont-track-suicides-ap-finds\/"},"modified":"2018-01-02T15:57:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-02T22:57:38","slug":"most-big-public-colleges-dont-track-suicides-ap-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/most-big-public-colleges-dont-track-suicides-ap-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Most big public colleges don\u2019t track suicides, AP finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"James
James Holleran, father of Madison Holleran, a University of Pennsylvania freshman who took her own life, talks about his daughter while sitting next to a favorite photo of her at his home in Allendale, N.J. After her 2014 suicide, one of her former teachers in New Jersey was surprised to learn many universities don\u2019t report suicide statistics.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

BOSTON \u2013 Most of the largest U.S. public universities do not track suicides among their students, despite making investments in prevention at a time of surging demand for mental health services.<\/p>\n

Tabulating student suicides comes with its own set of challenges and problems. But without that data, prevention advocates say, schools have no way to measure their success and can overlook trends that could offer insight to help them save lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t collect the data, you\u2019re doing half the job,\u201d said Gordon Smith, a former U.S. senator from Oregon who became a prevention advocate after his son, Garrett, took his life in 2003 while attending college. \u201cWe need information in mental health if we\u2019re actually going to be able to better tailor health and healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Associated Press asked the 100 largest U.S. public universities for annual suicide statistics and found that 46 currently track suicides, including 27 that have consistently done so since 2007. Of the 54 remaining schools, 43 said they don\u2019t track suicides, nine could provide only limited data and didn\u2019t answer questions about how consistently they tracked suicides, and two didn\u2019t provide statistics.<\/p>\n

Schools that don\u2019t track suicides include some of the nation\u2019s largest, including Arizona State University and the University of Wisconsin. Officials from those schools declined to comment, but both have dealt with student suicides in the recent past, according to news reports, including at least two at Arizona State in 2017.<\/p>\n

The issue has come to the fore as some schools report today\u2019s students are arriving on campus less prepared for the rigors of college. Many schools have increased spending on mental health services to counter what the American Psychological Association and other groups have called a mental health crisis on campuses.<\/p>\n

Surveys have found increasing rates of anxiety and depression among college students, but some experts say the problem only appears to be worsening because students who might have stayed silent in the past are taking advantage of the increasing availability of help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that people are characterizing this outcome as a crisis,\u201d said Ben Locke, who runs a national mental-health network for colleges and leads the counseling center at Penn State. \u201cIt\u2019s counterproductive because it\u2019s criticizing the exact people we\u2019ve encouraged to come forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding to the skepticism is that young adults in college have been found to have lower suicide rates than their peers. But they are also at an age when disorders including schizophrenia and bipolar depression often start to develop.<\/p>\n

Federal health officials have sought to encourage data collection as part of a grant program named after Smith\u2019s son, which has awarded $76 million to more than 230 colleges since 2005. Schools have separately spent millions on their own, often adding programs that teach basic life skills, and training staff across campus to identify students in need.<\/p>\n

\"In
In 2006, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., sits at his Pendleton, Ore., home behind a photo collage of his son, Garrett, who took his life in 2003. His suicide led to the creation of a federal grant, which has awarded $76 million for prevention programs to more than 230 colleges since 2005, on top of millions that institutions have spent on their own.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The U.S. Education Department asks colleges to collect data on student deaths but not suicides specifically, and a variety of factors can discourage schools from tracking it.<\/p>\n

Often it\u2019s difficult to confirm the cause of death, and medical examiners don\u2019t always notify universities when a cause is determined. There are concerns about legal liability. Some families prefer to keep it private. Even schools that collect data differ on whether they count suicides that occur away from campus or during breaks.<\/p>\n

And if the statistics become public, some schools fear it could damage their reputations.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo school wants to be known as a school with multiple suicides. It\u2019s not good for business,\u201d said Nance Roy, chief clinical officer for the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit that works with colleges and high schools on prevention.<\/p>\n

Advocates in at least three states have pushed to require universities to collect suicide data \u2013 in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington \u2013 but without success so far.<\/p>\n

After the 2014 suicide of freshman track star Madison Holleran at the University of Pennsylvania, one of her former teachers in her hometown of Allendale, New Jersey, was surprised to learn many universities don\u2019t report suicide statistics. He pushed for a law that would have required the state\u2019s public universities to collect and publicize annual numbers, but it never made it to a vote amid pushback from schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe felt that it was something that the public had every right to know,\u201d said Pam Philipp, a New Jersey mental-health advocate who lobbied for the legislation along with Holleran\u2019s former teacher, Ed Modica, who died in 2017 at age 66.<\/p>\n

A similar proposal by a state task force in Washington was sidelined amid budget woes last year, while lawmakers in Pennsylvania have yet to vote on recommendations to improve data collection.<\/p>\n

National studies have found that suicide rates are on the rise in the United States, reaching 13 per 100,000 among all Americans and 12.5 among those ages 15 to 24. Much of the data on suicide comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which does not specifically track college suicides.<\/p>\n

The gap in information led Dr. James Turner to seek funding for a national reporting system for student deaths in 2009 when he was president of the American College Health Association, but the National Institutes of Health didn\u2019t see the value, he said, and it never happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became puzzled, because we as a society are so interested in the health of college students,\u201d said Turner, who is now retired from the University of Virginia. \u201cWhy is it we don\u2019t have a comprehensive way of approaching this?\u201d<\/p>\n

The NIH declined to comment for this article.<\/p>\n

A total of 27 schools provided statistics to the AP that they say were consistently tracked from 2007 through 2016, amounting to an overall suicide rate of about 4 per 100,000, although numbers from some universities were so low that experts including Roy at the Jed Foundation questioned their accuracy. The University of Arizona, for example, averaged more than 40,000 students per year over the decade but reported just three suicides, a rate of 0.7 per 100,000.<\/p>\n

Earlier studies have found average rates between 6.5 and 7.5 per 100,000 among college students. Schools that provided data to the AP had rates ranging from 0.27 to 8. Because of the inconsistency in responses, The Associated Press is not publishing figures for colleges that provided data.<\/p>\n

Schools that do track suicides, however, often use their data to refine prevention efforts.<\/p>\n

After Clemson University started gathering more data in 2015, campus officials noticed an increased suicide rate among transfer students. The school is now redoubling efforts to connect those students with campus services.<\/p>\n

Data at other universities have led officials to secure access to certain rooftops.<\/p>\n

Among the oldest examples is at the University of Texas at Austin, where officials in the 1990s installed iron barriers atop a clock tower that had previously been closed following several student suicides. The 10-year rate on that campus is in line with averages found in earlier studies, its data show, and has decreased in the second half of the past decade, even as national rates increase.<\/p>\n

But Chris Brownson, the counseling center director who analyzes the university\u2019s suicides, said it\u2019s hard to celebrate success when every new case brings so much pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne death is one death too many,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s why we come to work every day \u2013 to do the things that we do here to try to prevent any of those from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

For help<\/h4>\n

Help for people having suicidal thoughts or for those who fear a person is considering killing himself can be found from these sources:
\n Axis Health System:<\/strong>
\n 24-hour hotline at 247-5245.
\n National Suicide Prevention Hotline:<\/strong>
\n (800) 273-TALK (8255) or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 741741.
\n RED Nacional de Prevenci\u00f3N Del Suicidio:<\/strong>
\n (888) 628-9454.
\n National Crisis text Hotline:<\/strong>
\n 741741
\n Fort Lewis College Counseling Center:<\/strong>
\n 247-7212.
\n Boys Town Hotline:<\/strong>
\n (800) 448-3000.
\n Safe2Tell Colorado:<\/strong>
\n (877) 542-7233 or online at
\n https:\/\/safe2tell.org<\/a>
\n .
\n Colorado Crisis Support Line:<\/strong>
\n (844) 493-8255 or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 38255 or online at
\n http:\/\/www.coloradocrisisservices.org\/<\/a>
\n to access a live chat available in 17 languages. The line has mental-health professionals available to talk to adults or youths about any crisis, 24 hours a day.
\n Trevor Project:<\/strong>
\n (866) 488-7386. Crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth via online chat, text or phone.
\n Southern Ute Community ACtion Program:<\/strong>
\n Visit
\n www.sucap.org<\/a>
\n and click on Suicide Prevention for a list of trained gatekeepers.
\n Second Wind Fund:<\/strong>
\n (720) 962-0706. This is not a crisis hotline, but the fund is available to youths who face social or financial barriers to crisis counseling. The organization requires a referral by a school counselor or mental-health professional.
\n Survivors Support GrouP:<\/strong>
\n Heartbeat of Durango meets from 6 to 8 p.m. the second Wednesday of every month at the La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave. Contact Janna for information at (970) 749-1673.
\n American Foundation for Suicide Prevention:<\/strong>
\n Colorado chapter information available at
\n https:\/\/afsp.org\/chapter\/afsp-colorado\/<\/a>
\n For Men:<\/strong>
\n A website for adult men contemplating suicide, who often are unwilling to seek help, is available at
\n www.mantherapy.org<\/a>
\n .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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