The Community Action Team at Olin Health Center will be tying on yellow ribbons this week to increase awareness about suicide prevention.
“We’re doing this because it’s important to bring awareness to the students,” said Olin Health Advocate Heather Bradfield, who coordinated the project. “There’s been instances, even on my own floor, in my own dorm, where people have attempted suicide.”
Bradfield, a nursing sophomore, said she has always been interested in mental health issues and wanted to steer her project toward a topic that is often overlooked, such as depression.
Advocates on the action team distributed 1,000 ribbon cards containing a yellow ribbon attached to a poem.
Bradfield said people feel most stressed during the holidays, which is why the cards are being distributed this week.
“I chose the poem because it tells you to reach out to someone and you don’t have to go through this alone,” she said. “There are people there to help you.”
The advocates also distributed informational bulletin boards to residence hall mentors. Kelly Healy, the team mentor, said she feels the bulletin board’s statistics and unique facts will help students combat depression.
“The bulletin boards have pages that show warning signs, ways to help people and facts that people wouldn’t normally know,” the dietetics senior said. “One of the pages I liked best was the one listing 10 famous people who have battled depression.”
MSU police Capt. Dave Trexler said there were 15 suicide attempts reported on campus between 1998 and 2000. Each of the attempts required medical attention.
Jasmine Greenamyer, alcohol and other drug educator at Olin Health Center, said the project is directed more toward depression because it is an easily recognizable warning sign of a suicide attempt.
“Suicide is one of the top three concerns that are not addressed by the health community,” Greenamyer said. “We only distributed them to residence halls to see if mentors would even respond. If there is a good response, we will go beyond residence halls next year and expand the program.”
Pre-med freshman Jessica Keyman said she thinks this is a good time of year for the ribbon cards because students feel more depressed during finals.
“Everyone is used to routine,” Keyman said. “Everyone slacks off until the last minute and then they go crazy when they finally realize they have to pull it together and do some work.”
