PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Students at the University of Maine Presque Isle spent part of Wednesday evening shining a light on the difficult topic of suicide.
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- Ralph McPherson, center, UMPI Campus Counselor, addresses participants in an Out of Darkness Walk on Dec. 6, thanking them for their strength and courage in bringing awareness to suicide education and prevention efforts. The ribbon shape made from luminaries on the Gentile Hall gym floor is a representation of the Suicide Prevention ribbon. (Courtesy of Rowena McPherson)
About three dozen UMPI students and community members gathered for UMPI’s first annual Out of Darkness Walk, a part of a national event organized by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
“One of my friends passed away so I felt like there was a need for awareness of this,” said Victoria Studholme, a senior social work major at UMPI, who helped start the event on campus.
One year ago this month, one of Studholme’s friends, a fellow UMPI student, committed suicide.
“It was upsetting. It was a lot to take in,” Studholme said. “I learned that this isn’t a choice. It’s an actual disease.”
Suicide is the 9th most common cause of death in Maine and was the second-leading cause of death among Mainers ages 10 to 34 from 2012-2014, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Across the globe, suicide among young adults ages 15 to 24 has tripled since the 1950’s, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Studholme said she hopes that students who attended the event or saw signs with suicide statistics and messages of hope around campus will think about suicide in a new way: as a mental health issue that people should talk about and seek help for, not suppress.
“I’m hoping that people start to realize that we need more resources for this,” Studholme said.
Studholme joined other students in decorating luminary bags that were displayed in a symbol of solidarity at Gentile Hall, and then released balloons into the night sky in memory of those affected by suicide.
“There’s a lot that can be said and done. There’s a lot of people who don’t understand that even though we’re in college, we’re still stressed out,” Studholme said, referring to the prevalence of suicide among young people. “Talk with your friends, talk with your family members. Get it out there so it’s not a taboo subject.”
