Hopkins suicide rate in line with national college trend

According to data recently compiled for 2004-2005, the Hopkins' Counseling Center expects one student suicide every 1.5 years or an average of 7.7 suicides per 100,000 students -- close to the national average of 7.5 deaths per 100,000 students.

The American College Health Association reports that one in ten college students seriously considers suicide and nearly half suffer from significant depression. About 95 percent of students who commit suicide are clinically depressed.

Studies indicate that suicide statistics do not follow trends in intensity of college programs or college type. Some Ivy League schools have lower than rumored rates of suicides. Cornell University, for example, reports an average of 5.7 student deaths per 100,000 students every year. Harvard and Duke Universities see 7.4 and 6.1 deaths, respectively, per 100,000 students annually. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports an annual average of 10.2 student deaths, the highest suicide rate in the nation.

There is no available data directly comparing public schools to private schools in the annual number of student suicides.

Studies have indicated, however, that the public schools of the Big Ten conference are at the national average for suicide rates among college students with 7.5 deaths per 100,000 students every year.

Though suicide rates at Hopkins appear close to the national average, Michael Mond, director of the Counseling Center, argues the small sample size can skew calculations in either direction. Regardless of what data may indicate, Mond explained that the Center is taking steps to minimize the number of student deaths.

"We can't make people come, but we

try to reach out to them," he said.

The Counseling Center sends out an annual newsletter to the Hopkins community, informing students and faculty alike about suicide and depression. The letter sent this year, which can be found on the Counseling Center's Web site, highlighted "the ways to understand depression and suicide and how to help one another through difficult times."

"[The letter] was drafted by representatives from student organizations in order to make the information appeal to students," Mond said.

The Center drafts the annual letter to faculty encouraging them to notice when students are not performing up to their usual standards or seem to appear out of character. They are advised to talk with distressed students and refer them to the Counseling Center.

The letter also includes guidelines for dealing with suicidal students and asks students to talk about suicidal feelings. The guide states, "The less specific and lethal the plan, the less likely is a suicide attempt."

This past year, the center saw over 1,083 students, or about 15.5 percent of the Hopkins population. "[These numbers] are a lot higher than other universities ... which see about five to ten percent of their students," Mond said.

Of the 1,083, 177 indicated some thought of suicide and 47 were deemed serious enough to be entered into the center's Suicide Tracking System.

Started in the fall of 1996, the system monitors patients considered to be at risk for suicide. It was designed by the Center to ensure close monitoring of suicidal clients and to collect data that would allow for an analysis of treatment outcomes for potentially suicidal patients.

"For anybody who indicates any risk of suicide ... the clinician follows up with a thorough assessment," Mond said. "We have an organized structure in play to make sure they aren't falling through the cracks and we try to reach out to heal them."

Research has shown the Counseling Center's success in dealing with suicidal patients. Mond said the Center contracted David Jobes, a suicidologist at Catholic University, to "collect data and find out what is working versus what is not working."

Of the 47 patients in suicide tracking last year, 21 were successfully resolved, i.e. they expressed no suicidal thoughts for three consecutive visits.

When patients were asked about how often they had thought about committing suicide, the average at the last counseling session (on a scale from zero to four with four being never and zero being always) was 2.66 compared to 1.93 during the initial session.

The numbers of students answering zero, one and two were also shown to decline dramatically as the sessions proceeded.

The Counseling Center's success is apparent beyond the realm of treating patients for suicide. Of all the patients the Center has seen over the past three years, approximately 66 percent of student clients had improved significantly, 29 percent showed no significant change and five percent significant deterioration.

Further data and statistics can be found in the Counseling Center's Annual Report for 2004-2005 on their Web site.