Content warning: This article discusses suicide, mental health and related topics. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, support is available. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
September is Suicide Prevention Month, a time for raising greater awareness about mental health and suicide prevention, as well as reminding everyone about the importance of having these conversations. Sinclair offers a variety of mental health and crisis resources available to students and employees throughout the year.
One important resource that is available to students is the free 24/7 Counseling Services. These counselors are licensed professionals who provide confidential meetings to assist students with academic and personal concerns while identifying steps they can take to improve their lives. The counselors endeavor to meet students where they are and, if necessary, can aid students by referring them to community therapy or other services if they need additional resources.
The counseling services are equipped to help students with the problems they may be facing in their lives, with some of the most common challenges being academic concerns, relationship concerns, personal concerns, and general concerns. Academic concerns can include things like study habits, test anxiety, and procrastination. Relationship concerns can include anger management, grief, and physical or psychological abuse. Personal concerns can include self-esteem issues, addiction concerns and eating disorders. General concerns can include stress, basic needs, depression, time management and difficulties with concentration or motivation. Of course, none of these issues exist in isolation and problems in one area frequently affect other areas as well, which is why counseling is designed to help students in a wide variety of areas.
While some students already know whether they need counseling, others may be unsure, which is why the Sinclair website has links to useful external resources like Mental Health America and the JED Foundation. MHA provides free online screening tools that can help individuals see if they may have anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance abuse and more. The tools offer tentative results that are not intended to be diagnostic; they are merely to help determine if counseling could be beneficial. The JED Foundation focuses more specifically on providing help and advice for those struggling with suicidal thoughts, as well as those who have loved ones that they know, or suspect are struggling with suicidal thoughts.
Another important resource for students is the case management services, which provides a confidential space where students are empowered to discuss and overcome personal challenges and barriers making it difficult for them to stay in school and meet their educational goals. They can also help students by connecting them to a wide variety of campus and community resources to support and guide them through their individual journeys. While they cannot help in every area, they can assist students in many areas, including housing insecurity, access to food and healthcare, transportation and emergency financial assistance.
In addition, Sinclair has also partnered with several apps to provide free mental health resources and crisis support for students, faculty, and staff, as well as friends and family. One is Timely Care, a mobile app that offers telepsychiatry, digital self-care, and peer-to-peer support, and can be downloaded using your Sinclair email. Another is the Hope Link app, which makes it easier for people to help a friend, loved one, or themselves during difficult times by guiding support to someone in need or coping with mental health challenges.
Suicide is tragically the second leading cause of death for college students and the Sinclair community wants to help any student who is struggling emotionally persevere and ultimately flourish on both a personal and academic level. If you or someone you know needs help don’t hesitate to use the information and resources Sinclair has to offer.
Erik Larson, reporter
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