***Mentions of suicide.
On Monday, Mar. 17, Ann Gleason, Dean of Students, shared an email regarding suicide prevention training that will be co-sponsored by the Meredith College chapter of Psi Chi and the Psychology Club. As per the flyer, the training will be offered on Friday, Mar. 21, from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. in Ledford 101. There will be a debrief session after the training between 3 p.m and 4 p.m. hosted by Healther Meredith Minds. According to the flyer, the training is free for all students, but registration is required. Food will be provided. The flyer also states that the purpose of the training is to teach college students the signs of suicide risk and what a person can do to help.
The training will be run by Clover, an SPRC approved program, according to the flyer. Clover, The Suicide Prevention for College Students (SPCS) Gatekeepers Program, according to their website, is a “90-minute, evidence-based gatekeeper training designed specifically for college students, developed by licensed psychologists at Clover Educational Consulting Group.” Their page further shares about the program itself and notes that “The Program teaches students to recognize signs and symptoms associated with suicide risk and to support appropriate help-seeking behaviors.” The Clover website adds that the reason that the audience for the program is college students is because “[college students] are deeply rooted in the campus community and thus well-positioned to notice suicide warning signs in peers.”
The event flyer shared that suicide is the “third leading cause of death among college-aged students.” Upon further investigation of the statistics, The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) stated that suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S.A and shared statistics from a Center for Disease Control (CDC) report that showed that “suicide [in 2022 was] the eleventh leading cause of death overall in the United States, claiming the lives of over 49,400 people.” In addition, another CDC article noted that “suicide rates increased 37% between 2000-2018 and decreased 5% between 2018-2020. However, rates returned to their peak in 2022.” The Meredith Herald aslo reached out to Dr. Prevatt, an Associate Professor of Psychology and Advisor for the Psychology Club, who shared about the importance and value of mental health in the Meredith community and “ hope[s] that this training will offer one more resource to support students”.
To learn more about the Psychology Club and Psi Chi, students can follow the Psychology Club Instagram page @mc_psych_club and keep up to date with the @mcpsychdepartment Instagram page.
By Dawn Arnold, Contributing Writer
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