After a string of student deaths at UW-River Falls, an expert speaks to student mental health
Students and faculty of the University of Wisconsin River Falls are mourning the loss of four members of the campus community.
In September, a professor of journalism died unexpectedly of natural causes. The obituaries of the three students say they all lost their battles with depression. Two of these students were from Minnesota. Last year, 43 percent of the student body came from Minnesota.
In a recent letter to students, University Chancellor Maria Gallo said the school is providing grief counseling and plans to host conversations about mental health on campus. The campus also extended its Thanksgiving break to a full week to give students more time to recover.
Erich Mische is the executive director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, or SAVE. It’s a national nonprofit based in Minneapolis. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about school response to student tragedy and mental health issues.
A note to our listeners: This next segment discusses suicide. If this is a topic that triggers you — please take care and know that trained help is available. Call or text 988 and you’ll be connected to a crisis counselor as soon as possible.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: Students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls are mourning the loss of four members of the campus community. In September, a professor of journalism died unexpectedly due to natural causes. The obituaries of the three students state they all lost their battle with depression.
The deaths happened within a month of one another. Two of these students were from Minnesota. In a recent letter to students, University Chancellor Maria Gallo said, the school is providing grief counseling and plans to host conversations about mental health on campus. The campus also extended its Thanksgiving break to a full week to give students a, quote, "much needed break."
Erich Mische is Executive Director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, or SAVE. It's a national nonprofit based in Minneapolis. He joined us yesterday on the Minnesota Now program to talk about school response to student tragedy and mental health issues. Erich, thanks for your time.
ERICH MISCHE: Thanks for having me on, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: UW-River Falls is a fairly small school in a small town-- pretty tight-knit. A lot of folks feel the grief of these losses. What's the first thing a school should do to help students and staff who are grieving?
ERICH MISCHE: I think the first thing you have to do is you have to communicate. The key thing that campuses need to do is they need to be straightforward. They need to provide information that's accurate.
And they've got to do what they're doing right now, which is making sure that they've got resources available to young people, and to faculty members, and family members, anybody who is connected to this. So I think, first and foremost, you have to acknowledge that there has been a loss. And then you have to be able to provide resources, so people can not only deal with the emotions that come with this, but also provide information where people can get support, and information, and the help that they need.
CATHY WURZER: Suicide, as you know, is one of the leading causes of death for college students. Why is mental health such a prevalent struggle for that age group?
ERICH MISCHE: Well, I will tell you, as the father of a junior in college and a son who is a recent college graduate, there's a lot of factors involved with it. Sometimes it has to do with being away from your family. Sometimes it's simply the stress of life, campus, challenges, your academics. There's all sorts of factors that go into it. So I think it's always a challenge to try to identify any particular issue that leads to these kind of challenges that young people have.
But I will tell you that we're still dealing with the after effects of COVID. The Attorney General has talked about loneliness as this national crisis. And I think young people in particular were impacted by this separation from those stable environments that they enjoyed as young people.
And then, again, you add on to it the other factors of being away from home, the holidays coming up, the stressors of academic life. There's a lot of factors. And so in a lot of ways, the conversation really needs to turn more towards what can we do to help young people address some of these challenges, recognizing that they're out there, and we've got to address them head-on.
CATHY WURZER: Let me ask you about the situation at hand. How common is it to see suicides in one community in such quick succession?
ERICH MISCHE: You know, I guess I don't know the answer to that, Cathy. Again, I think for your listeners, for the community at large, the key thing here is to really focus on making sure that people are getting access to help and to support that they need. There are all sorts of studies out there that talk about the concept of contagion. And that concept is oftentimes fueled by how suicides are covered, how this is communicated in the media.
How is information relayed to people? And so I think right now what the University is focusing on, which is making sure that young people are getting counseling, that they're getting access to resources, that they know that there is help out there-- that is really critically important. And the more that you and others and the press can help drive that message that there are resources out there, that there is help out there for young people-- I will tell you, that is really what's needed today now more than anything else at that campus and, really, any campus across the country.
CATHY WURZER: Let's then dive a little bit deeper into how best we can talk about a death by suicide in a way that doesn't contribute to stigma or perhaps contagion.
ERICH MISCHE: I think, first and foremost, is just, again, to be honest and be upfront about it. Two is there are certain things that you don't want to talk about when it comes to suicide. You don't want to talk about methods of suicide.
You don't want to glorify suicide. Behind all of the statistics and numbers, we all know that there are real people's lives that are being impacted by it. But it's safely communicating.
Don't communicate the method, the location. Avoid memorials that tend to glorify the situation. And reducing access to lethal means is also critically important. So first and foremost is recognize that if you have somebody that is talking about hurting themselves, has indicated that they're considering suicide, take them seriously. Make sure that you work with them to get the kind of help that they're going to need to have access to.
There are resources like 988, which is a national number that if somebody needs help, they're thinking of ideating about suicide to go to 988. If you're somebody who is already hurt yourself or you're thinking about hurting others, call 911. There are those immediate initial steps that we can be doing to help provide resources to anybody, including young people, to get access to the help that they need during a particularly difficult time that they may be struggling with their mental health.
CATHY WURZER: So, Erich, give us an idea too. If someone does communicate to you, a young person saying, I'm having these thoughts. I'm really struggling. How do you get the conversation going? What are the right things to ask?
ERICH MISCHE: First and foremost, ask the question, are you thinking of hurting yourself? Are you thinking about suicide? Are you thinking about something that is going to harm you? So we as a society have been so programmed to avoid using the word suicide because there's this idea that if you talk about it, it's going to happen. But you have to be direct. You really do have to be direct. I will tell you that as a parent of two college-age kids, it annoys the heck out of them that their dad is very direct about asking that question.
You have to listen non-judgmentally with empathy and compassion. You have to help keep them safe by talking about removing objects that are nearby to harm themselves. Offer to go with them to the hospital, or to therapy, or counseling.
And again, if it's something where they need help immediately, encourage them to call or text 988. And at the end of the day, the most critically important thing is to stay connected with them. Check in with them. Let them know that you're in this with them together, that they are not alone.
CATHY WURZER: All good advice. Erich, thank you so much for your time.
ERICH MISCHE: Thank you for your time. And again, encourage people to use the resources. 988 is an incredibly powerful one.
CATHY WURZER: Thank you. I appreciate that. Erich Mische has been with us. He's the Executive Director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, or SAVE. It's a national nonprofit based in Minneapolis.
The deaths happened within a month of one another. Two of these students were from Minnesota. In a recent letter to students, University Chancellor Maria Gallo said, the school is providing grief counseling and plans to host conversations about mental health on campus. The campus also extended its Thanksgiving break to a full week to give students a, quote, "much needed break."
Erich Mische is Executive Director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, or SAVE. It's a national nonprofit based in Minneapolis. He joined us yesterday on the Minnesota Now program to talk about school response to student tragedy and mental health issues. Erich, thanks for your time.
ERICH MISCHE: Thanks for having me on, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: UW-River Falls is a fairly small school in a small town-- pretty tight-knit. A lot of folks feel the grief of these losses. What's the first thing a school should do to help students and staff who are grieving?
ERICH MISCHE: I think the first thing you have to do is you have to communicate. The key thing that campuses need to do is they need to be straightforward. They need to provide information that's accurate.
And they've got to do what they're doing right now, which is making sure that they've got resources available to young people, and to faculty members, and family members, anybody who is connected to this. So I think, first and foremost, you have to acknowledge that there has been a loss. And then you have to be able to provide resources, so people can not only deal with the emotions that come with this, but also provide information where people can get support, and information, and the help that they need.
CATHY WURZER: Suicide, as you know, is one of the leading causes of death for college students. Why is mental health such a prevalent struggle for that age group?
ERICH MISCHE: Well, I will tell you, as the father of a junior in college and a son who is a recent college graduate, there's a lot of factors involved with it. Sometimes it has to do with being away from your family. Sometimes it's simply the stress of life, campus, challenges, your academics. There's all sorts of factors that go into it. So I think it's always a challenge to try to identify any particular issue that leads to these kind of challenges that young people have.
But I will tell you that we're still dealing with the after effects of COVID. The Attorney General has talked about loneliness as this national crisis. And I think young people in particular were impacted by this separation from those stable environments that they enjoyed as young people.
And then, again, you add on to it the other factors of being away from home, the holidays coming up, the stressors of academic life. There's a lot of factors. And so in a lot of ways, the conversation really needs to turn more towards what can we do to help young people address some of these challenges, recognizing that they're out there, and we've got to address them head-on.
CATHY WURZER: Let me ask you about the situation at hand. How common is it to see suicides in one community in such quick succession?
ERICH MISCHE: You know, I guess I don't know the answer to that, Cathy. Again, I think for your listeners, for the community at large, the key thing here is to really focus on making sure that people are getting access to help and to support that they need. There are all sorts of studies out there that talk about the concept of contagion. And that concept is oftentimes fueled by how suicides are covered, how this is communicated in the media.
How is information relayed to people? And so I think right now what the University is focusing on, which is making sure that young people are getting counseling, that they're getting access to resources, that they know that there is help out there-- that is really critically important. And the more that you and others and the press can help drive that message that there are resources out there, that there is help out there for young people-- I will tell you, that is really what's needed today now more than anything else at that campus and, really, any campus across the country.
CATHY WURZER: Let's then dive a little bit deeper into how best we can talk about a death by suicide in a way that doesn't contribute to stigma or perhaps contagion.
ERICH MISCHE: I think, first and foremost, is just, again, to be honest and be upfront about it. Two is there are certain things that you don't want to talk about when it comes to suicide. You don't want to talk about methods of suicide.
You don't want to glorify suicide. Behind all of the statistics and numbers, we all know that there are real people's lives that are being impacted by it. But it's safely communicating.
Don't communicate the method, the location. Avoid memorials that tend to glorify the situation. And reducing access to lethal means is also critically important. So first and foremost is recognize that if you have somebody that is talking about hurting themselves, has indicated that they're considering suicide, take them seriously. Make sure that you work with them to get the kind of help that they're going to need to have access to.
There are resources like 988, which is a national number that if somebody needs help, they're thinking of ideating about suicide to go to 988. If you're somebody who is already hurt yourself or you're thinking about hurting others, call 911. There are those immediate initial steps that we can be doing to help provide resources to anybody, including young people, to get access to the help that they need during a particularly difficult time that they may be struggling with their mental health.
CATHY WURZER: So, Erich, give us an idea too. If someone does communicate to you, a young person saying, I'm having these thoughts. I'm really struggling. How do you get the conversation going? What are the right things to ask?
ERICH MISCHE: First and foremost, ask the question, are you thinking of hurting yourself? Are you thinking about suicide? Are you thinking about something that is going to harm you? So we as a society have been so programmed to avoid using the word suicide because there's this idea that if you talk about it, it's going to happen. But you have to be direct. You really do have to be direct. I will tell you that as a parent of two college-age kids, it annoys the heck out of them that their dad is very direct about asking that question.
You have to listen non-judgmentally with empathy and compassion. You have to help keep them safe by talking about removing objects that are nearby to harm themselves. Offer to go with them to the hospital, or to therapy, or counseling.
And again, if it's something where they need help immediately, encourage them to call or text 988. And at the end of the day, the most critically important thing is to stay connected with them. Check in with them. Let them know that you're in this with them together, that they are not alone.
CATHY WURZER: All good advice. Erich, thank you so much for your time.
ERICH MISCHE: Thank you for your time. And again, encourage people to use the resources. 988 is an incredibly powerful one.
CATHY WURZER: Thank you. I appreciate that. Erich Mische has been with us. He's the Executive Director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, or SAVE. It's a national nonprofit based in Minneapolis.
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