32,000 + cases in Universities - 0 deaths but 8 student suicides

[Sedih]

This is quite a remarkable statistic, more students have killed themselves than died of covid.

Do you think maybe we should focus on getting universities properly open as long as staff are safe and given PPE.

It just feels remarkably tragic that 8 young people have died in 4 weeks, this is much higher than normal years and presumably the result of covid.

It’s just sad all round

thetab.com/uk/2020/10/28/at-least-one-university-student-has-died-every-week-since-the-start-of-term-180334

[Rabbitholebonkers]

My mum works in student services she’s a mental health nurse. Students commit suicide every single year so I don’t think it can be blamed entirely on covid. As per usual in this country, the MH services available to young people are shocking, and uni students are transitioning from CAHMS to adult services, and getting lost in the process. This is compounded by the fact they are often miles away from home. It’s horrifically sad.

[DominaShantotto]

I've had a lot of talks with the uni mental health services where I'm a mature student. Apparently they were quite quiet during the initial lockdown - and it's now when the unis have pulled the students back onto campus, then left them with a pretty mediocre blended learning offer (we get half a day once a fortnight face-to-face teaching - I've negotiated not going and catching up online as my mental health is shot but I'm old enough and wise enough to spot it sliding and act to mitigate it) and the constant uncertainty of if you're going to get moved up a tier or called by test and trace ... and now their workload has skyrocketed.

By all accounts campus is a ghost town - and there are so many one way arrows and warning tape on our campus I hit sensory overload looking at photos of what they've done to my beloved old building!

Can't fault the support I've been given - my tutor checks in on me every couple of weeks as she knows my mental health is in a pretty dire place, mental health services have been there when I've needed them and the uni have generally being doing everything they can - but they really shouldn't have dragged students back to the city for half a day a fortnight and sitting in their bedroom the rest of the time.

[SheepandCow]

She explains things well here. She should know. What with being a scientific expert. Well done Nicola for listening to her.

Such false logic: uncontrolled spread doesn’t mean ‘just some people die.’ It means health services collapsing bc of high COVID hospitalisation rate (so all patients suffer), lasting economic damage from people being scared & changing behaviour, & society going backwards.

[SheepandCow]

Here's the expert, Professor Devi Sridhar, who is advising Nicola Sturgeon.

@devisridhar
Two approaches: either keeping borders largely open like the UK, but adopting harsh domestic restrictions to try to combat community transmission; or having very tight border controls, like Taiwan and New Zealand, but few restrictions on everyday life.

And

There’s so much we can each do to still enjoy our lives safely- getting outside, ventilating inside spaces, Face with medical mask, support local shops, while also taking precautions to avoid getting the virus & passing it on. All of our micro-shifts & decisions collectively lead to larger impact.

[SheepandCow]

Here's another article from the Guardian.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/30/coronavirus-strain-from-spain-accounts-for-most-uk-cases-study

And

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/30/save-christmas-with-covid-lockdown-in-england-experts-say

[Baaaahhhhh]

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/10/new-zealand-mental-health-crisis-as-covid-stretches-a-struggling-system

I thought I would post this, I read it some time ago. New Zealand is held up as an ideal society, look how well they have done with Covid. Well yes. Is it a happy country? No. Second highest rate of youth suicide in OECD, and that's before Covid. No country is immune, either from Covid, or the long term consequences of lockdown.

[IloveJKRowling]

No-one has good choices in a pandemic.

My friend would rather not have coronavirus and teach as normal - online requires a lot more preparation and time to adapt lectures and tutorials. However, that's better than her catching it and bringing it home to her older partner who is at reasonably high risk.

Not that she was given a choice, if the students had opted for face to face her employer would have forced her in.

[Noideawottodo]

My dd absolutely hates online learning. The alternative - masked, socially distanced lectures - is fractionally worse as she lives 30mins from campus by public transport. So she has no choice. Online sucks.

[IloveJKRowling]

A pp made the point that lots of students prefer online learning. One of my friends is an academic and she said that her students have voted overwhelmingly to have all tutorials online rather than in well ventilated, cold, socially distanced rooms with everyone in masks or visors. They were offered the choice. They all chose online.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Couldn’t agree more, Noton

It shouldn’t have taken a pandemic to get us talking about this. Now that we are, we shouldn’t waste the opportunity by blaming everything on lockdown.

I do think we’ve made the most enormous mistake in not running a public mental health campaign during the pandemic. I’ve seen a lot on social media about how lockdown will affect mental health and so we should stop it. Not so much about strategies for helping manage mental health during the situation we find ourselves in.

[Notonthestairs]

What we really need is planning and investment in mental health services.

We don't train enough Psychiatrists and access to services can be extremely limited with long waiting times depending on where you live.

I think there is also an issue regarding joining up child to adult service - young adults can fall between two stools as it were.

[SexTrainGlue]

According to ONS, there are about 95 student suicides a year (estimate, because age/occupation is not always gathered)

If spread evenly across the whole year, that would be just under 2 a week. If more in term time, then just over 2

As other have pointed out, it is sad to read about the potentially avoidable deaths of young people. But it is far worse to see those deaths being used so inaccurately to make a point.

If it really is only 8, then this is a low suicide year, and we should be very thankful for that.

If you remove those where events leading to the suicide fall outside the Covid months or are clearly attributable to non-Covid issues, then it's a very low suicide year.

[Porcupineinwaiting]

Long COVID is there because the virus causes it in some people for reasons that are not clearly understood. Some people find it scary because the thought of months off work or being permanently (?who knows) disabled is scary to them. It's scary to politicians and economists because having a significant chunk of your working population out of action is a resource draining ball ache in a way that older people dying just isnt.

[Noideawottodo]

@Porcupineinwaiting

Long COVID is not just about post-viral fatigue. And has nothing to do with the good news that being a student lowers suicide risk amongst the young.

Long Covid is there to scare people because Covid on it's own started to lose the fear factor.

[Weirdwonders]

Three of the eight deaths you are drug related. The information is there in the article you posted but apparently haven’t read.

[Porcupineinwaiting]

Long COVID is not just about post-viral fatigue. And has nothing to do with the good news that being a student lowers suicide risk amongst the young.

[BackforGood]

Whereas one single suicide is one death too many, I do wish people would stop making up figures, as the OP has done.

Suicide is tragic. I have had the misfortune to go to 2 funerals in the last 12 months, of young men who took their own lives - well the more recent one we 'gathered' as only 30 could actually attend.
One was a student who took his life 12 months ago, long before we'd heard of COVID. Unfortunately people do this every year.
The other wasn't a student.
Suicide is just awful. But sadly, it is not unusual.
Please don't start bandying about made up figures.
Other posters have given some links to actual statistics.
Please don't take a news headline and pretend you know the reasons behind each of those individual tragedies.

[Pixxie7]

Whilst what you say is true how many other people have been infected and possible died as a result of this. Not to mention the economic disaster many are now facing as a result of lockdowns also leading to a breakdown in their mental and possibly suicide. You can’t take a group in isolation.

[Noideawottodo]

@Juststopswimming

Wtaf has student suicides got to do with fucking long covid?!? I utterly despair at some MN posters' ability to turn every single thread into a preach about the terrible dangers of long covid. [End rant]

I agree. And every time I hear about long bloody covid i tell the story of my friend and her family who all caught cv after skiing in italy in March and three of them won their age group triathlon a month ago, they are absolutely fine.

No, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but any viral infection can cause post viral fatigue in susceptible people.

[bumblingbovine49]

Sustained decrease I meant to say

[bumblingbovine49]

@Sedih

I’m shocked that is the natural suicide rate. I know suicides have risen in the general population.

This is not true. Suicides rose in 2019 compared to the previous few years ( which I think is where the erroneous idea that suicides have increased because of Covid came from) but this rise was before Covid

I n the long-term context , the trend in suicides is an overall long-term sustained since the 1980s

The interim data for 2020 is only just starting to be available so.I.am.not sure if we can say much about the numbers in 2002 compared to 2019 yet .

[Juststopswimming]

Wtaf has student suicides got to do with fucking long covid?!? I utterly despair at some MN posters' ability to turn every single thread into a preach about the terrible dangers of long covid. [End rant]

[GCAcademic]

Without wanting to minimise what are very tragic cases, we should bear in mind that the suicide rate within that age group is actually higher among non-students than it is among students. Rightly, there is a lot of focus on student mental health, but this seems to obscure a much larger problem within that age group which is not getting talked about.

[SheepandCow]

@TableFlowerss

Sadly no one cares enough about the negative affects on the young. Quantity of life over quality is the underlying theme unfortunately.

Long Covid is indeed of huge concern for the young. A potential lifetime of disability (physical and/or mental).

[SheepandCow]

Worth thinking about wrt Covid. Long Covid has been linked to psychological and neurological problems.