The Active Minds club on campus drove home the importance of self-care with their sobering presentation on suicide prevention.
In honor of September being Suicide Prevention Month, Active Minds hosted a talk on mental health, suicide prevention, and how to pick up on the signs of suicidal ideation on Thursday, Sept. 25.
“What’s going on tonight is that we’re observing suicide prevention month, because our club is a mental health advocacy-based group, and suicide prevention is one of our key causes. So, we’re trying to raise awareness and suicide prevention efforts,” said sophomore, 19-year-old psychology major and club president, Colin Webb.
Club vice president, 18-year-old sophomore Sonoma Attalienti, is the first line of communication between the club president and the rest of the group, which includes six executive board members. She is studying English and writing arts, and her career goal is to become a criminal attorney.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every 11 minutes, one person commits suicide. That totaled roughly 1.5 million people who attempted the act in 2023 alone. That is why it is so important for people to raise awareness for the warning signs, and that’s exactly what the two were doing Thursday night. Alas, not all plans make it to fruition.
As the evening rolled along, people trickled in here and there, but in the end, only four people came to the event. This isn’t the typical turnout for an Active Minds get-together. Webb was acutely aware of the subject matter’s gravity, so he put out a friendly reminder to the group that not every member had to attend if they didn’t feel comfortable with it, an offer that many accepted.
“Other schools only care about grades — they only care about student success. Rowan cares about student life and mental health,” said Webb.
Rowan supplies students and staff with two on-site therapists at the Wellness Center. Also, Rowan is one of only about 80 universities nationwide that offers a center for neurodiversity. But everyone’s self-care begins with their circles of trusted friends and family.
“A good, loving family and a supportive environment will always support you no matter what. No one wants you to hurt yourself trying to do all this work — you can’t. Everyone that loves you … just wants you to be happy … to do well. There is a balance, and you can definitely find that balance if you really try,” said Webb.
After the presentation, showing statistics and facts about suicide and suicide prevention, Webb and Attalienti conducted a discussion session called Peer Support. People wrote about their worries regarding school life, the semester, or just life in general on index cards, and the duo responded with observations and suggestions. This simple yet effective exercise goes to show that everyone worries about different aspects of life. However, in the end, we have each other to lean on.
“Remember, believe in yourself, have fortitude. Sometimes … I know that life gets difficult. I know life will also sometimes throw you a punch, but what marks the true sign of character isn’t throwing a punch back [but] being able to get back up from it … life is difficult … but if everything was easy, like, where’s the growth in that?” said Attallienti.
College is full of stressors and firsts. It’s likely the first time you’re away from home this long. It’s the first time that your support network of friends and family isn’t immediately there if you have a problem. You have to navigate at least four classes and all the homework that entails. You have clubs, meetings, fundraisers, honor societies, projects, and work, all while trying to maintain a social life and a healthy GPA.
“Everyone handles things differently, and … it’s important that we all are nurturing of one another — well, I know that we’re all different, but what we have in common is that we’re all living a life … what we have in common is that we should all be lifting each other up,” said Attalienti.
The best piece of advice of the evening was the moral of the story: whatever else you may do, get help immediately if you’re feeling distressed in any way. Adding to the diversity in the group was 18-year-old freshman Anthony Gioiello, who is a chemical engineering major. This was his first time attending an Active Minds meeting.
“I wanted to join Active Minds because I believe that mental health awareness is something that’s not just important in general, but it’s also like… mental health and ethics as a whole are something I believe is important… But I also believe that it’s a very important and underappreciated part of engineering. Learning more about that will help me in that field,” said Gioiello.
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