Reaching out is key to dealing with suicide, says one suicide expert.
The University of Iowa College of Education hosted a community forum and workshop titled “Suicide: Warning Signs, Prevention/Intervention Strategies and Resources” on Monday.
The workshop is part of the Teacher Leader Center certificate program at the college.
The evening’s speaker was John Westefeld, a UI professor of psychological and quantitative foundations.
Westefeld, a nationally known expert on suicide, has done extensive research, teaching, publishing, and workshop presentations related to the topic of suicide. One of his most notable research interests includes college suicide.
“My interest in suicide goes way back, and it is a personal and professional interest,” he said. “And that really made me want to be a psychologist and try to learn why it happens and what we can do about it.”
Westefeld said suicide affects a lot of different people in many different ways but is still a topic that is “in the closet.”
“Part of my goal is to get it out of the closet,” he said.
Among his main points from the workshop include resources available for people with suicidal ideations, extent of the problem, assessment of the risk, and suicidal interventions.
Westefeld said resources available for individuals with suicidal thoughts include the American Association Suicidology, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, the American Foundation for Suicide, and others.
“Because people want help, but it’s hard to ask, the implication of this is we must be willing to ask about it if we are concerned about it,” he said. “If you open the door, people will usually go through it.”
The general characteristics of a suicidal person emphasized in the forum are a lack of motivation to live, helplessness and hopelessness, and having a desire to seek help but reluctant to do so, Westefeld said.
He said suicide is caused by numerous factors and that it is very difficult to predict, because potential victims are often ambivalent about committing suicide.
“Having opposite feelings at the same time, going back and forth about something,” he said. “This is the reason it is so hard to predict suicide — even the person does not know if he or she will do it.”
Some of the risk factors emphasized were behavioral, situational, and verbal clues —such as individual loss, responding ambiguously, giving away valued possessions, organizational of personal will, and a sudden unexplained improvement in mood.
Keri Neblett, community intervention director at Johnson County Crisis Center, said it is crucial to look out for patterns of behavioral changes in people as possible cues and indicators of suicide.
“You have students who usually have good grades and turn in their homework on time all the sudden not doing their homework any more, or their grades are slipping,” Neblett said. “That might be an indication that something is going on.”
Westefeld said suicide is pattern of clues and a series of symptoms rather than individual ones.
According to 2015 data from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, more than 40,000 Americans die of suicide every year. Additionally, one American dies around every 13 minutes because of suicide.
Westefeld said a method of intervention to counter suicide is to conduct workshops on the topic at different institutional levels, starting from the school district level.
“Again I feel that it is a topic that is out of the closet in school but not as much as I would like to see,” he said. “There is good evidence that workshops can make a difference.”
UI student Samantha Barton, who is in the Teacher Leader Center certificate program, said her main takeaway from the workshop is that everyone can always do something to help a potential suicide victim.