When Kipp Rusty Walker finished playing a song called “Sorry for All the Mess” on his electric piano during an open mic night last Tuesday, nearly 15 audience members in the Strictly Organic Coffee Shop in Bend began to applaud and cheer. They continued to cheer even after the 19-year-old seemed to ceremoniously stab himself with a double-edged, six-inch knife as a performance act.
“It was unclear, especially at first, what was really happening, because it’s an open mic and it’s a performance,” Rhonda Ealy, the owner of Strictly Organic Coffee Shop, said in an interview with Fox News. “Most people thought it was some sort of theater.”
The only problem, of course, is that it was no act.
For the next few seconds, audience members screamed and watched in horror as Walker collapsed on stage in a pool of his own blood. Some patrons jumped on stage to help, while others called 911 for help. After an ambulance arrived, he was taken to St. Charles Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Events such as these have motivated the University Counseling & Testing Center to host events highlighting suicide prevention resources available to students. This week, the center is hosting Suicide Awareness Week, which is intended to provide resources and advice to students in hopes of preventing deaths like Walker’s.
Donna Miller, the University Counseling & Testing Center’s Suicide Prevention Team coordinator, said the center will run a table in the EMU from today through Thursday, where students can win prizes and learn about help available to students suffering from suicidal thoughts.
According to data provided by the University Counseling & Testing Center, there were 69 reported cases between 2008 and 2009 in which counselors treated suicidal thoughts or tendencies. Although these cases constituted nearly 4 percent of all admissions to the University Counseling Center, the report notes that the amount of people being counseled for suicidal tendencies has been steadily decreasing over the years. In comparison to the 69 cases in 2008, there were 118 from 2007 to 2008 and 191 from 2006 to 2007.
Although University suicide statistics were not immediately available, Mark Evans, a University counseling center psychologist and co-director of the Oregon College & University Suicide Prevention Project, estimated there are two completed suicides each year and some years in between with none. Despite the fact that these numbers are relatively small, Evans said there is still a need to reach out to students since nearly 10 percent of students seriously contemplate suicide in any given year. In addition, a 2002 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report noted that suicide rates tripled among young adults between 1952 and 1995.
To account for the significant increases in these rates, Evans said factors such as stress, substance abuse, isolation and the stimulation of other mental health problems may contribute to suicidal thoughts among young people. However, this does not necessarily mean occasional and short-lived thoughts of suicide are completely abnormal.
“I think it’s probably normal for people to entertain thoughts of suicide,” Evans said. “I think it’s when people are seriously considering it then we’re more concerned and it’s something that has to be addressed.”
However, Evans explained there are more attempted suicides than fatal suicides among college students. In fact, Evans said students attending college have half the suicide rate of their counterparts who do not attend college.
“One reason why we think that is the case is because firearms are banned on campus,” Evans said.
For students who may not be willing to discuss a problem, Miller said anyone from the University can file an anonymous online report to the University Counseling & Testing to inform them of persons who might need help. From there, Suicide Prevention Team members discreetly meet with those who filed the report and offer their services to the student who might be in need of help.
“We want to encourage people to tell someone — tell someone you trust and that could be a friend, it could be a partner, it could be roommate, it could be a parent,” Evans said. “Part of the solution is breaking out of that isolation.”
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