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UM students, Mainers shed light on suicide prevention

By Jamison Cocklin

Posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009, 2:57 am

The University of Maine hosted its first Out of the Darkness community walk Sept. 27, an event which is a part of a larger effort taking place in more than 200 communities nationwide to help raise awareness of suicide prevention.

The UMaine counseling center organized the walk, which has taken place in Bangor in years past. It was held at UMaine in hopes student participation would increase. The gatherings are held annually nationwide to raise funds for research, education and programs that assist in helping those in distress. More than $7,500 of proceeds raised by Sunday’s walk will go directly to the event’s creator: The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), a non-profit organization exclusively dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide.

Despite consistent rain, thick cloud cover and the occasional gust of wind, the counseling center met its hope for increased student participation. Close to 300 participants, a majority of whom attend the university, arrived at the event’s starting point on the mall in front of Fogler Library, where a large tent was pitched. Inside, those taking part had a chance to make a donation, register if they hadn’t already done so online, buy T-shirts and raffle tickets and purchase trees that could be planted as symbols of hope. Before the walk got underway, the crowd was addressed by those who helped in organizing the event; included in the address was Rep. Emily Cain of Orono, and Jason Charland of the Maine Youth Suicide Prevention Program. The crowd listened to a performance by Renaissance, the women’s a capella group on campus, who sang “Not Too Late” by Norah Jones and “Let It Be” by the Beatles. The performance saw a host of different reactions ranging from smiles to tears. Once under way, the procession covered five miles around Orono where bystanders could see participants wearing T-shirts and stickers that honored family and friends.

“The walk is important for so many reasons. Suicide is happening, but it really isn’t being talked about as much as we would like to see. It affects a lot of people, and the event is a way to confront it in a very public way,” said Bethany Asquith, a UMaine alumna who helped organize the event for the counseling center. “We want people to know there are ways around the distress and depression that could potentially lead to suicide. There are so many programs and places that anyone can turn to for assistance.”

One such program is Touchstone, which has an outreach office located in the Memorial Union. According to Asquith, who is a Touchstone coordinator at the counseling center, the university program has benefited in the past from the proceeds generated by the AFSP. The organization helped Touchstone set up a screening area online that allows students experiencing depression to anonymously talk with a counselor to determine what can be done to alleviate and reconcile their situation.

According to a report updated July 2009 by the Maine Center for Disease Control, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24, and it claims the lives of nearly 32,600 U.S. citizens every year. The same report states Maine has the 24th highest suicide rate in the nation.

“If you look at the numbers, Maine is average, and we would like to see that number continue to decrease. What we are doing with the walk and programs like Touchstone is about prevention. We want to set an example and be at the forefront of developing measures to help curb suicide in the state and in the country,” Asquith said.

Jackie O’Brien, Lauren Arsenault and Sarah Snow — all students at UMaine — volunteered at the event, working with Touchstone as student support peers. The trio unanimously agreed that there are a host of options for those experiencing distress.

“Many of us at Touchstone have training in suicide prevention. We urge anyone who needs someone to talk to about anything to come in and see us. Just look around — there is a network of support, and this walk shows that the community cares. There is always a better option; just call us or look into any programs like ours. We want everyone to know there are a lot of options out there,” Arsenault said.

In a pamphlet provided by the AFSP, 90 percent of all people who die by suicide have a diagnosable and treatable psychiatric disorder at the time of their death.

In addition to Sunday’s events in Orono, there will be others held in the state, including one in southern Maine as well as a national walk that will take place in Chicago. The efforts in Chicago will be metaphoric in nature, as participants will literally walk out of the dark and into the light with an all-night procession ending at dawn. The AFSP Out of the Darkness Community walks are the largest events in the country to raise funds and awareness for the issue of suicide. The UMaine counseling center has plans to bring the walk back to campus next year.