Yesterday, a first-year student allegedly attempted to take her own life by jumping off one of the parking garages (see story in this morning’s New Britain Herald)
There is already a Facebook group (“don’t give up, Cherolle Brown”). I also noticed that there is a support group sponsored by NAMI-CT for students with diagnosed mental disorders. Perhaps it’s also time to do some broader awareness and start a chapter of Active Minds?
At any rate, I plan to speak about my experience as a former client of the Institute of Living (my bipolar friend jokingly refers to it as “the substitute for living”) Professional’s Program in the hopes that it will do some good!
Speaking of IOL — I like it that they are sponsoring a BrainDance competition for high school students to reduce stigma, but their Myths, Minds, and Medicine exhibit is overly simplistic. The library also is not very helpful in answering reference questions.
Knitting Clio 
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The previous comment is from an online debate forum, where speculation is that the student in question was intoxicated and fell rather than jumped. This is possible — we don’t know for sure. Friends of mine who saw her earlier in the day say she seemed fine, so can’t fathom why she would jump. That’s the issue — someone can seem “fine” but not be.
This came in from my mother-in-law, who doesn’t have a wordpress account:
Dear Heather,
Since I’m not registered to reply in your blog, I’ll just send you an
e-mail. Reading your last entry about the girl who tried to commit suicide
by jumping from a roof remined me of an incident when I was in nursing
school. I was on an affliation at Mass. Mental Health Center working on a
semi-open floor (patients could sign out during the day. etc.). A young
man who was an exchange college student (Argentina, I think) jumped from a
roof of a high-rise dorm at BU, landed on a roof part way to the ground and
then managed to jump from there the rest of the way and did die. He had
signed out during the day and didn’t return that evening. Since I was
working at the time, I had to go and talk to someone (don’t remember who
but think it was probably a psychologist or something); guess they were
concerned about my mental health. Don’t remember just why he was in the
hospital; didn’t know him that well. As I recall, his father just sent for
the body to be shipped home; he never came to this country.
Love,
Mabel