Campus Events to Promote Suicide Prevention and Awareness

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – On Tuesday, Sept. 10, University of Arkansas students will see hundreds of paper silhouettes lining the grassy areas around the Arkansas Union Mall, each cut-out representing an Arkansan who was a victim of suicide. These reminders are part of a campus observance of World Suicide Prevention and Awareness Day, organized by three local community groups. Activities will begin at noon, ending with "A Walk for Hope, a March to Raise Awareness" around campus in the early evening.

“Information and understanding are two of the best tools for preventing suicide,” said Mary Katherine McKinley, one of the event organizers. “College-age students are one of the groups especially at risk for suicide, so we wanted to try to bring as much information as possible to our students here to help them understand that there is help available and there are things they can do to prevent suicide.”

Several local agencies will be staffing information booths on the Union Mall from noon to 3 p.m., explaining the resources available to students and offering tips on suicide risk factors and warning signs, how to help a friend, and where to go for help. Students will have a chance to write messages on the cut-out figures and to make signs with their “reasons to live,” “reasons to hope” or “reasons to call” — referring to a Crisis Center hotline. They can carry these signs during the evening “Walk for Hope.”

The activities will resume at 5 p.m., with food vendors and free music in addition to the information booths. A panel discussion will begin at 5:30, featuring students in roll-playing situations to demonstrate what a typical Crisis Center phone call is like, as well as to show ways to talk to a friend who says he or she is thinking of suicide.

“Many students have said they’re afraid to make a crisis line call because they don't know what will happen, so we want to reduce this fear,” McKinley explained. “They also say they don’t know how to approach someone who is showing signs of being suicidal. We hope this session will address both issues.”

The "Walk for Hope” around campus will begin at about 6 p.m. and finish at the Union Mall by 6:30.

During the day’s activities all Northwest Arkansas Suicide Prevention Coalition members will be wearing purple T-shirts. Any student may approach someone in a purple shirt for additional information or immediate assistance.

The Phi Alpha Social Work Honor Society, the U of A chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the Northwest Arkansas Suicide Prevention Coalition are working together to  host the day’s events.