As the school year winds down and exam-related stress levels skyrocket, calls to University Health Services' counseling crisis line increase, according to Robert McGrath, director of counseling services at UHS.
UHS counselors always have a backup of students who are waiting for counseling appointments, especially around finals time, said Robert Spedich, team manager for student relations at UHS.
Suicides on college campuses nationwide do not usually increase during this period, McGrath added, with the highest suicide rates occurring in October and February.
Although suicide is the second-leading cause of death among college students, the age group of between 15 and 24 is not especially at risk for suicide compared to the general population. For example, according to the American Association of Suicidology, the age group between 15 and 24 had the second-lowest suicide rate when compared to nine other age groups. Still, the association also reported that there are 10.7 suicides per day in this age group.
College-related stress is one obvious factor that can add to the risk of suicide in the age group.
\It is a time of life where there are a lot of changes and pressures. It's the exact prescription for higher risk of suicide,"" said UW-Madison Interim Dean of Students Roger Howard.
A recent debate concerning a 2000 suicide at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has brought the issue of campus suicides into the spotlight.
On April 14, 2000, Elizabeth Shin, an MIT sophomore, died after setting herself on fire in her dorm room. Her parents have now filed a wrongful death suit against MIT for $27 million, alleging that school officials should have notified them that their daughter had been hospitalized by MIT's chief psychiatrist after he had deemed her mentally unstable. Shin told the psychiatrist she had attempted suicide twice before. MIT psychiatrists claim they were protecting Shin's privacy by not contacting her parents.
Shin was described as extremely ambitious and driven, characteristics that, when they become too exaggerated, may lead to tragedies such as suicide.
Spedich said he more often sees students' expectations as self-imposed rather than coming from parents or professors.
""Students have internalized them so strongly that they drive themselves to perfectionalistic standards,"" he said. ""It is pretty dangerous to do because by definition they are pretty much unattainable expectations.""
More attention should be paid to the general level of stress of students these days, McGrath said.
Currently at UHS, there is one position on the counseling staff that has been left unfilled since the former employee retired, according to McGrath.
UW-Madison has a lower rate of suicides compared to campuses of comparable size, according to McGrath.
There are usually one or two suicides per year at UW-Madison while other campuses have as many as seven or eight, he said.
Between 1980 and 1990, Big Ten schools including UW-Madison were the subject of a study to determine numbers of suicides for each school, the interaction between students and counseling centers and the distinction between suicide rates of the undergraduate and graduate population.
The study was created to help universities identify risk factor for suicide and implement successful intervention programs.
No changes were really made at UW-Madison after the study was completed, McGrath said, something he said he attributed to an already-existing infrastructure for counseling services.
""I think it's because we have a pretty good comprehensive mental health counseling service here.\
