After suicide, campus reaches out

The Daily Pennsylvanian

University officials are emphasizing a community-based approach to healing in response to Wharton senior Kyle Ambrogi's death.

A number of counseling and relief programs will be instituted in the coming weeks by the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life and the Wharton School.

Ambrogi committed suicide Monday night at his home in Havertown, Pa. As a running back on the Penn football team, he had scored two touchdowns in his final game. Friends and teammates said they knew he suffered from depression, but thought he had been getting better recently.

Experts who study depression and suicide say that one prominent suicide can often spark others to copy the act.

Pat Gainey of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention said that the best way to prevent copycat suicides is by reaching out to community members and informing them about how to get help.

To make students more aware of resources on campus, the VPUL office will be increasing the distribution of posters and flyers to college houses.

Counseling and Psychological Services will be offering counseling to specific groups such as friends, classmates and teammates of Ambrogi.

CAPS will also offer counseling for students who were not close to Ambrogi but may still be feeling the effects of the tragedy.

No mass e-mail will be sent to the undergraduate student body, according to Wharton Director of Undergraduate Student Life Beth Hagovsky, because such an e-mail might have negative effects on students. However, Wharton did hold an open session on Wednesday that allowed students to talk with CAPS counselors.

Penn's current undertaking to inform the community about available resources is a key step in preventing such tragedies in the future, experts say.

Suicide remains a problem at college campuses around the country. In 2002, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 2,788 people between the ages of 18 and 23 committed suicide. Statistics specifically about college students are not collected annually, but in 1998, suicide was the second leading cause of death among college-age students. An estimated 1,000 suicides occur on college campuses annually, and one in 12 college students has made plans to commit suicide at some point, according to the American Association of Suicidology Web site.

Educating the community about available suicide-prevention programs as well as common warning signs for depressed or suicidal people is an important factor in preventing tragedies, Gainey said.

She added that up to 97 percent of suicides can be stopped through education and the treatment of depression.

Professor of Psychiatry Greg Brown also said that education is key to preventing suicide. However, he added that there are "very few interventions that have been conducted with suicidal college students."

Very little is known about suicide in college communities in particular at this time. However, Gainey stressed that young adults are particularly at risk and that this must be taken into account. Factors that make college-age students, in particular, a high-risk age group include academic pressures, being in a new environment, depression and feelings of failure, according to the American Association of Suicidology Web site.

By educating communities about both depression and suicide, experts say, the stigmatization that these topics carry can be overcome.

Brown said that the formation of focus groups to "decide how best to implement a community-wide suicide prevention effort" may help gather information on assistance for troubled college students.

Screening students for depression as they enter the University could also help to minimize suicide on campus. Temple University offers online screening for depression, but Penn has no such survey.

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