Role of university in preventing students’ suicide ideation (Part 2)

Following on my last post, Shek & Wong in their article proposed a string of actions that universities could do, including holding credit-bearing courses that emphasize social responsibility, mental health awareness and leadership skills for college students of all concentrations.  This is what my university has been doing except the second component and yet three students committed suicide within one year.  This has raised huge concerns at the university, even prompting marketing campaigns to parents of prospective students’ through meetings and newspaper publicity.  For the social responsibility aspects, we have tons of NGO and corporate projects to promote social responsibility, and I myself have proposed and am teaching a leadership skill course. 

Why the limited effectiveness of the measures?  In my opinion, it is to do with the mental health issues. Shek and Wong mentioned that in Hong Kong, poor mental health among local university students is an issue that deserves attention.  I can’t agree more.  The three students who had committed suicide, and those who have the suicide ideations, would never come to speak to us, the instructors.  The persons whom would have noticed are the peers.  Whilst we have peer mentors programs, we never provide adequate training to these peer mentors.  I have also just known that we have only one clinical psychologist or counseling on site for 13,000 students!  The university has been spending much effort on rolling out compulsory academic advisory services for all undergraduates.  But my point is it is highly unlikely for those who have suicidal thoughts to approach their advisors.  I really think there should be credit bearing courses on mental health issues.  There is one topic which I firmly believe is of tremendous value to university students, namely “how to handle failure”. 

 

Since we were kids, our parents taught us not to make mistakes, not to fail…..  Then teachers teach and inspire us on how to be successful.  No one really has taught me how to handle failure.  Coupled with the worsening of mental health in local adolescents and young adults, a course on how to handle failure would add tremendous value.  E.g. how do we handle situation when we fail in an examination, how do we handle the situation when we did not receive any interview opportunities having sent 100 application letters.  Universities should invest in improving students’ mental health.   

p.s. It seems I have found a new meaning in what I am doing with my doctorate in clinical psychology study.  After my completion, I want to be able to design a mass educational program on how to handle failure, which is in line with my interest in positive psychology.  This is what I should start looking into to prepare for my thesis.