a Growing concern at college campuses

More than 1,000 suicides occur on U.S. college campuses every year. Boise State is no less affected. According to the Idaho Suicide Prevention and Hotline Service, Idaho ranks second in the nation for suicide among young people.

Often, college students find themselves overwhelmed by the new environment and added pressure of college life. According to the American Association of Suicidology, the appearance or increase of depression among the college population is often due to new academic and social pressures, feelings of failure and decreased performance, alienation and difficulties adjusting to new demands and different work loads.

The most recent data collected from BSU students through the National College Health Assessment showed stress as the leading cause of low academic performance. Depression ranked fourth.

Recently, mental wellbeing has become an important part of overall wellness in students. The issue is so important to the BSU Health, Wellness and Counseling Center that it provides counselors who are available to all students and staff at BSU.

BSU Professor Peter Wollheim began a program for training students to become Certified Crisis Workers through the AAS about five years ago. Wollheim said he recognized a need for the program after he became a certified crisis worker and found that he was the only CCW in Idaho. Through this BSU program, students may take 30 hours of classroom instruction followed by 500 hours of clinical work in crisis intervention. The 500 hours may be done on the suicide hotline, rape hotline or in hospital emergency rooms in the valley. The CCW prep program spans across several curriculums including communications, nursing and health studies.

Wollheim said the first step in crisis intervention is to assess the immediacy of the crisis, depending on “the first-line assessment, we can see if the underlying causes are temporary or situational, chronic or acute.” He said the students on campus are more aware of options available to them when they are in crisis than students who live off campus. On-campus students have more access to information and resident advisors are trained to recognize symptoms in the students they oversee in the residence halls, Wollheim said.

BSU’s Extended Studies Program offers several workshops for academic credit in suicide prevention and education. A list of these courses can be accessed at

http://www.boisestate.edu/extendedstudies/.

inny Eggleston
News Writer

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