In the United States, suicide is the second leading cause of death among 25 to 34-year-olds and the third leading cause for those age 15 to 24, putting deaths by suicide in line with health crises of national proportions. Suicide rates in Idaho have consistently been among the highest in the nation, ranking fifth in 2017, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Director of the University of Idaho Counseling and Testing Center Greg Lambeth, a licensed psychologist, said the CTC has seen a 78% increase in the past six to seven years in the number of students seeking appointments. But he thinks there is often a contradiction when it comes to mental health.
“There’s always a paradox in my opinion,” Lambeth said. “Some of the students who have the most persistent and acute suicidal symptoms are the least likely to seek out mental health services.”
Lambeth said for institution-wide programs to be successful, they have to contend with that paradox, which makes partnerships with campus colleagues including housing, the Dean of Students Office and Greek life and athletics important. This, he said, provides students with well-established relationships, so they know who to reach out to if they are in crisis.
Greg Lambeth | Courtesy
In 2006 the Idaho Council on Suicide Prevention was established by executive order and tasked with overseeing the implementation of the Idaho Suicide Prevention plan. In 2016, the Idaho Legislature allocated nearly a million dollars towards suicide prevention.
Lambeth said it is not uncommon in the large rural western states to have limited access to health care across the board including mental health — which is why letting students know about mental help resources is critical.
Since its implementation, the council has helped establish a lethal means task force, provided funding to the Idaho Lives Project and the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline and brought in an expert in suicide assessment and management to train behavioral health providers, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
District Five Representative Caroline Nilsson Troy sat on the Idaho Council for Suicide Prevention from 2016 to 2018. Troy sponsored a bill in the 2019 legislative session urging both the Federal Communications Commission to reserve 611 as the national suicide hotline number and forgo the existing 11-digit code. The bill passed both chambers and was passed to Idaho’s congressional delegation in Washington D.C.
Troy said taking a series of small steps are key in reducing suicide rates and that there is no simple and immediate solution
Lambeth said UI’s 24-hour crisis line is an underutilized resource on campus.
“I think there are students that would rather talk to somebody at 11 o’clock at night that they don’t have to interact with face to face,” Lambeth said. “It is utilized but not to the extent it would be if it was better and more widely known.”
Lambeth said raising awareness about the crisis line is a priority for the upcoming year.
Suicide prevention efforts were taking place at UI in 2016 as well. The CTC received a three-year Garrett Lee Smith grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to develop a comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable suicide prevention effort on campus. One principle outcome was the funding of a new mental health educator.
In the Fall 2017 National College Health Assessment (NCHA), 2.3% of UI students reported attempting suicide within the last year, while 62.8% reported feeling overwhelming anxiety in the last year and 44.3% reported feeling overwhelming anger.
According to Vandal Health Education Coordinator Amanda Ferstead, the NCHA data is used in Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) trainings. The one-hour program can be taken by students, staff and faculty members. It focuses on three steps to help prevent suicide and recognize suicide warning signs early.
QPR can be thought of a lot like CPR, according to the QPR Institute, because the emergency mental health intervention also intends to identify and interrupt a crisis and direct a person to proper care. Lambeth said during fall 2018, more than 1,000 members of the UI community took part in QPR training.
QPR isn’t the only suicide prevention tool the University of Idaho has implemented though — a number of programs have been put in to play in recent years to raise awareness and break down stereotypes surrounding mental health and suicide.
These initiatives include mental health screenings, mental health first aid, suicide awareness week events such as the “We Got Your Back 5K” and workshops including Mental Health 101, Fresh Check Day and the Mental Health Film series, all providing opportunities to interact with hundreds of students.
Lambeth said efforts for suicide prevention are broad across UI’s campus.
“In my mind, the best kinds of suicide prevention programming is doing as many things as possible,” Lambeth said. “You want to do the things that are research based and have some evidence that they are effective, but I really think you want to approach it from a lot of different kinds of perspectives, so I think this campus does a really good job of that.”
Lambeth said currently work is being done to make the CTC more accessible and welcoming to students. So far, they have streamlined information about CTC staff members on their website for ease of use.
“When a student is in crisis, they don’t need your mission statement —they need to know who to call,” he said.
Ellamae Burnell can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @EllamaeBurnell