National Suicide Prevention week is coming up on Sept. 6 through Sept. 12. Winthrop University’s Health and Counseling Services have come up with a creative way to show students who have battled suicidal thoughts or who are currently battling them that the Winthrop community is here to help.
Students are invited to make a collaborative art piece on campus where they can fill out sticky notes with their reason for hope in the shape of letters spelling out the word “hope.” The collection will be on the windows of the Digiorgio Campus Center throughout the course of National Suicide Prevention week. Online students are also invited to participate through the Winthrop counseling services Instagram account.
The theme for this year was inspired by South Carolina’s state motto, “While I breathe, I hope,” which will be used to to help students reflect on their reasons for hope during unprecedented times.
Throughout the year, students not only have access to resources on campus such as short term counseling services, same day counseling, and therapy groups, but there are also fully virtual self help resources through Therapy Assistance Online. “If you’re not quite in the place where you want to physically talk to a counselor or join a group yet, part of what winthrop has is a whole host of self help resources through TAO that’s completely free and anonymous,” Outreach Coordinator and Staff Counselor Jess Hudgens said.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many activities have been shut down or moved online. This has left students with feelings of being overwhelmed and alone. According to www.cdc.gov, “Younger adults, racial/ethnic minorities, essential workers, and unpaid adult caregivers reported having experienced disproportionately worse mental health outcomes, increased substance use, and elevated suicidal ideation.”
“You aren’t alone in your loneliness … it’s an absolutely natural reaction to what we’re experiencing right now. That being said, connection is the number one remedy for that isolation and the difficulties that come with that isolation…if that’s with your roommate or trusted family members, if that’s with regular Zoom calls with your friends, if it’s going and seeing each other six feet apart at a park just so you can see each other’s faces. Any way to get connection right now is so important,” Telecommunications Health Coordinator and Counselor Elizabeth Tate said.
Throughout National Suicide Prevention Week, the counseling and services staff hope to have an impact on all Winthrop students. “Raising awareness that mental health is a real thing. It’s something that everybody experiences..we all experience physical illness. We all experience mental illness to some degree in our lives…we all know what it feels like to feel pain. We’ve all been there and so, [for one], really let people know you’re not alone in this, [and] two, help people who might not understand what it feels like to be depressed or suicidal kind of get a feel of hey, this is real, this is painful, [and] here’s how you can support others. Make it something that is not a shameful thing to talk about, or acknowledge, or own,” clinical coordinator and licensed psychologist Gretchen Baldwin said.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, do not hesitate to contact the counseling services staff or one of the phone numbers listed below.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1-800-273-8255 (English; Press option 1 for Veterans Crisis Line) or 1-888-628-9454 (Spanish)
National Crisis Text Line – Text HELLO to 741741
Trevor Project Lifeline (for LGBTQ+) – 1-866-288-7386 or text START to 678678
Trans Lifeline – 1-877-565-8860 (English) or 1-877-330-6366 (Spanish)
SC Mobile Crisis Response – 1-833-364-2274
Graphic by Anna Sharpe
