<p>On the 6pm CBS news they did an update on the student who is suing GW for kicking him out of school for seeking help for depression. CBS quoted the stats: suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in college students and 1100 students died each year from suicide. The ex GW student is now at U. of Maryland and will graduate this year. Provost from GW was interviewed and stated that they still feel they did the right thing by asking the student to leave the school. What does this say to other student? Will this story prevent others from seeking help for fear it will damage their academic career?</p>
<p>The story kind of stated that GW’s rule is that if the student does anything to cause harm to any person, (s)he will be expelled. OK – thinking about suicide can lead to harm, BUT checking into the hospital for help would seem to trump that, being a health-promoting action. </p>
<p>I was left with the question — what should I tell my kids to do if they are depressed at college?</p>
<p>I agree SuNa. At my son’s school, during parent orientation the counseling service addressed this issue. They said they encourage students to seek help for any adjustment problems, depression or suicidal thoughts–told students that all would be strictly confidential and that if a problem were severe enough they would help them to seek in hospitalization and would help with a medical withdrawal, with no academic repercussions (obviously no grades if semester not finished). It sounded at least like they were very supportive.</p>
<p>“I was left with the question — what should I tell my kids to do if they are depressed at college?”</p>
<p>NO MATTER WHAT, a depressed student should seek assistance from a responsible person… There are federal and state privacy protections in place to protect medical/psychological records. If an assessment is made that the student is in imminent danger of harming him/herself or someone else, safety will trump privacy. Sometimes a student will first share suicidal feelings with a roommate, RA, teacher, etc. Different colleges/universities vary in there policies regarding such situations. For the best assurance of privacy, suggest that the student head to the Counseling Center (you can call and ask their policies if you wish). HOWEVER, wouldn’t you rather the university err on the side of calling parents, an ambulence, a crisis service, etc., rather than risk suicide?<br>
Having said that, I believe that students should be held accountable for their behaviors. If a student is making suicidal threats (outside of a confidential relationship) and is refusing to engage in adequate treatment, they are not only risking harm to themselves, they are disrupting the living and learning environment. The behavior should be dealt with as such. Depressed students are successfully treated at MOST Counseling Centers MOST of the time. This allows students to successfully complete the semester. That is the desired outcome, not requiring them to leave.</p>
<p>If you check the CC archives, this story was discussed in depth more than a month ago.</p>
<p>Check out the Washington Post story:
"About 2 a.m. one sleepless night, sophomore Jordan Nott checked himself into George Washington University Hospital.</p>
<p>He was depressed, he said, and thinking about suicide.</p>
<p>Within a day and a half of arriving there, he got a letter from a GWU administrator saying his “endangering behavior” violated the code of student conduct. He faced possible suspension and expulsion from school, the letter said, unless he withdrew and deferred the charges while he got treatment…</p>
<p>GWU was Nott’s dream school, he said recently. He’d always wanted to study foreign relations in Washington, he said, so after starting classes, making friends his freshman year and getting straight A’s, he was the happiest he’d ever been.</p>
<p>But it was a tough year for GWU, with several sudden student deaths. One evening in April, near the end of the semester, a freshman jumped from the fifth floor of a dorm.</p>
<p>He was one of Nott’s closest friends; they had planned to room together sophomore year.</p>
<p>When he jumped, the complaint says, Nott and two others were trying to open his locked door to help.</p>
<p>In fall 2004, when Nott came back to school, he started feeling depressed, he said. He kept thinking about how his friend had died.</p>
<p>In September, another student committed suicide.</p>
<p>Nott began going to the University Counseling Center, he said.</p>
<p>He began taking psychiatric drugs and told counselors he thought about suicide but would not act on it, according to the complaint, and he did not attempt suicide.</p>
<p>In the hospital, one of the letters he received suggested that he could withdraw to defer the charges. He decided not to argue his case at a school judicial hearing to be held two days after he left the hospital, he said, worried that an effort to fight the charges would fail and leave him with a permanent black mark, an expulsion or suspension, on his transcript."</p>
<p>In considering what happened, keep in mind:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It is not easy to get hospitalized for being suicidal. One has to be assessed as being a danger to oneself.</p></li>
<li><p>Based on the facts in the Wash Post story, the student seems to have been particularly vulnerable due to the suicide of a friend as well as the suicides on campus (suicides tend to inspire copycat suicides).</p></li>
<li><p>Think about it: If your child were suicidal enough to be hospitalized, would you want your child to remain on a college campus, hundreds of miles away from home without very close supervision or would you want your student to be sent home where you could watch him and assure that he could get the treatment he needed?</p></li>
<li><p>There’s a very good chance that the student managed to successfully complete University of Maryland because he got the psychological treatment that he needed before transferring there. </p></li>
<li><p>There also has got to be more to the story since privacy regulations prevented the university from giving the public more details about the student. It’s possible that the student was offered a medical withdrawal with no academic repercussions, but refused to take it, thus forcing the college to kick him out.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>As a person who actually interned as a counselor at the GWU Counseling center (years before the student in question attended there), I know that there are many students who get treatment for depression at places like that. For a depressed studente to be forced to go home indicates that the problem was very serious and the risk of suicide was believed to be high.</p>
<p>Oh I most definately would want my child home and getting help, and there may very well be much more to the story. What bothers me so much is that the way it is being presented once again in the media may make students think twice about seeking help. They may not want to be seen by a professional if depressed, fearing the consequences; and if left untreated the depression could progress to suicidal thoughts and by that time would they be thinking clearly enough to make the rational decision? The years between 18 and 22 are stressful enough socially and when a new environment and academic pressures are added…well, I just don’t want any child not to seek help they may need.</p>
<p>I agree mkm56 that the way the story was presented might prevent a depressed student from seeking help. Unfortunately, it seems that neither the reporter nor the reporter’s editors knew enough about mental illness to ask appropriate questions and present a more balanced article about the situation.</p>
<p>the average age of onset for major depression is mid-twenties and the average age of onset for bipolar disorder is early twenties, so it makes sense that many college students battle mental illness.</p>