Penn offers support for grieving students

As part of a continuing response to the Friday suicide of Wharton junior Jose Joseph, the Office of Counseling and Psychological Services has expanded its services to help students deal with the death of a fellow classmate.

CAPS will be holding a meeting this afternoon for any Wharton students who may need help dealing with the loss. And since Friday morning, CAPS has been meeting with students and staff both in groups and individually to help them cope with the suicide of Joseph, who jumped from the eighth floor of Hamilton College House.

On Friday, counselors met with many of Joseph's close friends, as well as resident advisors, graduate associates and house deans. Later, they held a group meeting for all Hamilton residents, and opened the office Saturday on a drop-in basis.

"Typically, we try to identify their closest friends and then work outward from there," CAPS Director Ilene Rosenstein said. "But we have an emergency number that someone could call 24 hours a day. That's pretty complete coverage."

In addition to group meetings, individual help is available both in person during regular office hours and any time of day by telephone. But, Rosenstein stressed, the important thing is to seek guidance whenever issues arise.

And with the high emotional pitch of the past two months, it is increasingly necessary to pay attention to friends and fellow students.

"I think it's really important for all of us to realize that it's a tough time for everyone after the September 11 attacks, and school is a tough time, period. And it's midterm time," Rosenstein said. "We all have to take the time to pay attention.... We need, as a community, to look toward each other and to make sure to provide support for each other."

Rosenstein added that students should be cognizant of warning signs that friends may be under duress.

"What people should be aware about is if friends talk about being extremely anxious or if they say they don't want to go on," Rosenstein said. "It's very important to listen to our friends and peers and to take them seriously. Any kind of changes in typical behavior can mean that someone is going through something... It's very important that they get help."

And many students have been utilizing resources on campus to help deal with issues the death may have awakened for them.

"I've been getting some calls, some of which are directly related, some of which are tangentially related to that," said Mark Lipshutz, a clinical psychologist who was on call for CAPS this weekend. "I think that for some people when there's a suicide it makes it that much more real, and that much more possible. I don't think that it puts the idea in anyone's head, but it makes it more plausible."

While psychologists say that Joseph's death will not move people absent of suicidal thoughts to suddenly consider killing themselves, others already suffering from depression may be more at risk.

"Something like this does motivate people to stop and re-evaluate their lives," Rosenstein said. "Will it become a string of tragedies? No one can say. That's why it's so important that people come for help. That's why frankly I don't worry about the people who come to see us. It's the people people who don't come to see us that I worry about."

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