Suicide prevention focus of weeks events

The Counseling Center hosted Suicide Prevention Week from Sept. 4-10 at Buffalo State College.

This is the fourth year that the Counseling Center has been actively holding suicide prevention events on campus.

On Thursday, area director of the Western New York chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Eric Weaver, spoke to students and staff in Bulger Communication Center about mental health.

This is the second year Weaver has been a part of suicide prevention week at Buffalo State.

Weaver shared the story of his struggles with severe mental illness as a former sergeant with the Rochester Police Department.  He said that, after a number of years of dealing with depression, he began to have severe suicidal thoughts.

"Every day I woke up, I wanted to die," Weaver said.

After being removed from his home, Weaver was hospitalized a total of five times.  Despite this, Weaver said that the most difficult thing for him to deal with was the day he was told he had a mental illness.

"It wasn't until the day that I actually could accept that fact, that I actually could start recovering from some of the things that I was dealing with," Weaver said.

It is this struggle with stigma, Weaver said, that drives his initiative to educate people about mental health most.

"It doesn't mean they are a diagnosed schizophrenic, it doesn't mean they're diagnosed bipolar, it could mean they are severely depressed, and never talked to anyone about it," he said. "As we start looking at the issues surrounding mental health, we start bringing down those stigmas."

Other events throughout the week included information tables set up by the Counseling Center in Campbell Student Union during Bengal Pause, and open Question, Persuade, Refer training.

Counseling Center director Joan McCool said that Suicide Prevention Week is part of an initiative called Buffalo State Cares, which seeks to promote a more civil and caring environment for students on and off campus.

Buffalo State recently received a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which it will use to fund a variety of activities and services through the initiative.

This will include more QPR training, a public service announcement campaign for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK), community outreach and collaboration, online seminars for students, family and staff, as well as a number of other services and workshops.

Senior art education major Liz Miller said she thinks these services are important to the college.

"I think there are a lot of people at the college that can benefit from it," she said.

Fall suicide prevention events will close on Saturday with an Out of the Darkness community walk in Delaware Park, sponsored by the AFSP.

As principle investigator of Buffalo State Cares, McCool encourages students to get involved in the remaining events this fall, and to come out for Mental Health Awareness Week in the spring as well.

 "We want our students and faculty to know that there is always help available," McCool said.

Brian Alexander can be reached by email at alexander.record@live.com.