Trigger warning - Deaths/suicides at uni

[GreenLunchBox]

After being shocked/saddened by some close to home uni deaths this year I did a search and it seems it's not rare. Five at Cambridge
just by July this year, for example www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/11/university-of-cambridge-launches-inquiry-after-five-suspected-suicides

Someone did a recent series of freedom of information requests and most unis have a few deaths each year, with suicide being a common cause

Does anyone know if the rate is higher than in the general population in this age group? If so, is it a problem that's getting worse, and what can we do about it?

The suicide rate at universities is actually lower that that of the non-student population of the same age group. That’s not to say that there is not a problem, but tackling suicide in young people consider that population, whereas the media attention is focused almost entirely on students.

Sorry needs to consider that wider population, blasted tablet.

We had one in our subject about 3 years ago and it still haunts me. I wish we could have done more. She was one of the nicest humans you will ever meet.

That's comforting to know. It just seems so high

www.whatdotheyknow.com/info_request_batch/2357

Hideous isn't it OP? DS knew of so many in his first year at Nottingham. One suicide (car park) one went home at Christmas and killed himself there. Two sudden deaths, one alcohol related and one epilepsy and one attempted suicide who survived and is now a doctor. And these were all people that he actually had met, so clearly there must have been others. He helped the parents of the lad who died of epilepsy to clear out his flat and he said, as you might imagine that it was just the worst thing in the world.

That is a LOT ☹️

I am in the USA, since COVID Universities are saying they have seen a spike in mental health problems and suicide. Whenever my teens/young adults see a dr about anything now a standard question is asking if they have felt suicidal.

The number of suicides in the higher education population in the 12 months ending July 2020 was 64. This is equivalent to a rate of 3.0 deaths per 100,000 students.
The rate of deaths by suicide in the higher education student population was 3.9 deaths per 100,000 students between academic year ending 2017 and academic year ending 2020. The suicide rate was significantly higher in the general population than in the student population (12.5 deaths per 100,000 general population compared with 3.9 deaths per 100,000 student population).

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/estimatingsuicideamonghighereducationstudentsenglandandwalesexperimentalstatistics/2017to2020

Five deaths by suicide in as many months in Cambridge is very high. The student population in Cambridge is around 25,000.

Thank you for this

I am wondering if covid has increased the rate at unis compared to the non-uni same age population.

I just never heard of deaths while I was at uni, so this has shocked and upset me. But I suppose there wasn't social media back then.

A friend’s DH had significant MH issues at Oxford in the 1970s. No one would ever talk about it. She said he was very troubled. He left Oxford and went to university in his home city where he graduated. She thought he would have killed himself had he stayed at Oxford.

This is not new. What’s new is that it is recorded and flagged up by the press because the parents, in some cases, have blamed care at the university. When a student is away from home it’s very difficult to keep track of what’s going on as a parent. You are relying on others. We don’t hear about DC who live at home and rarely hear that their parents/colleges/workplaces hadn’t engaged with them. It’s also more young men than women.

My DDs didn’t know anyone who had any issues about anything. As far as they could tell. However DD has had the boyfriend of a friend kill himself and another die from cancer - both aged 28 at the time. Deaths are tragic at any time.

Yes it seems it's not new. My DC's uni has had 4 deaths a year over the last five years. I just had no idea. These are obviously people in their early 20s

Clusters can occur through suicide ideation. It’s very sad to hear of early deaths. However suicide is most common in middle aged men, the last time I looked at the statistics. It is still a relatively rare event but of course, tragic and so painful for everyone.

I remember reading about a suicide at Oxford by a local boy in the local news a few years ago. He'd gone to private school then got into Oxford but was struggling and the uni were raising concerns about him not meeting the standard. His mum had put him through school on her own and she was saying in the article about his achievements and that his success was guaranteed. I guess he couldn't cope with the pressure.

I think Oxford and a Cambridge have higher suicide rates than other universities, and read a few years back that it was up at the same level as the general population.

The way the courses are structured may be one reason, as so much of the final mark is based on the performance in the exams right at the end of the final year.

I don't think they do from the Googling I've done today. It seems to be less (apart from the horrible year Cambridge has has- seems an anomaly, hopefully)

It's definitely not a new thing sadly. I went to Cambridge 25 years ago. I attempted suicide (but was fine obviously!) after the first term and never went back. Someone else moved into my room in halls when I left and within a couple of months had completed suicide. Really sad.

DH friend committed suicide at University, his suicide made national news. I have worked in 2 RG Universities. They are excellent at covering up bad news including suicides. One of the worst was a student that hung themselves from a canopy in a very beautiful ornamental garden. One of my friends DH was a security guard and tried to talk a student from getting down off of a ledge. They spoke for a while and the student said sorry just before he jumped. The poor guy was horribly affected by it.

My DS decided Uni wasn’t for him so came home. Within a week a girl had thrown herself out of the same building his room was in. It’s so sad, I do wonder if she would have been saved if she’d just gone home.

Another upsetting thing is that a friend of my DD went to Uni and we thought she was gay. First night at Uni the flat all got drunk together and one of the boys talked her into bed. She had sex without protection, but luckily didn’t get pregnant. That really messed with her head because she is gay and is distressed at what happened and how he managed to manipulate her.

Suicide at any age is tragic. Leaves everyone feeling they could have done more.
The message needs to get out that it's better to walk away from you career / uni / whatever than to feel you have no option but to end your life.

The General population need to understand stress. And people going off work with stress. It's often seen as nothing and the person is just lazy, having a holiday, ducks out when the going gets tough. Not that the person could be suicidal and desperately need help.

I guess it must be hard to explain why these suicides happen. One never knows the whole story, after all. I wonder how much of it is due to academic pressure, anxiety about getting a job and making ends meet after uni, not fitting in socially, a bad home life, a traumatic experience like assault... the possibilities are sadly endless and probably unquantifiable.

Universities are getting better though. This year I went to 4 Open days at Southampton, Durham, Queen Mary in London and Nottingham. The mental health options and reaching out and support to freshers wax highlighted dramatically, referred to many times throughout the day, in all the paperwork, talked about at the subject specific open day subject talk. They are trying!

Suicide and Mental health is talked about in PSHE for ds2 (Year 9). Also MH awareness week is making it better known. people like DJ Roman Kemp talking about losing their best friend to suicide. We are making progress.

IME the biggest contributing factors are social (first term) and academic (summer terms). But these are the suicides which are not completed and are mostly different in nature (impulsive, unplanned, non violent methods and sought help immediately after).
It is a huge adjustment, living away from home, managing finances, a new level of academic expectations, independence which some students are poorly prepared for and all at the same time as trying to establish a peer support network in a short amount of time. Normally our friendships are created over time and we are often introduced by mutual friends etc. At uni they need to quickly establish a group of friends, all while often still trying to establish their sense of identity and who they are as a person. Honestly, the ones who manage that easily without some degree of emotional turmoil must be in the minority.