Bringing suicide awareness to campus with Active Minds

Active Minds, a non-profit mental health organization, and SIU Student Health Services teamed up to bring the organization’s Send Silence Packing program to campus on Oct. 10 on the Morris Library lawn.

Send Silence Packing is a display of backpacks of college students who committed suicide; it includes information about them and their lives gathered from family and friends.

Aaron Plattus who was representing Active Minds at the program said the display’s been touring colleges/universities since 2008.

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“One of our big goals is to empower people to be there for their friends should they need to reach out to someone,” Plattus said. “To be strong enough to be vulnerable in a situation where they aren’t reaching out to someone, maybe they should be.”

Plattus said most of the bags don’t have anything in them but few have things donated by families of the people.

“I think a big part of the culture and the stigma around suicide is not talking about it,” Plattus said. “I think having it out in the open is definitely a good thing in terms of changing the conversation and changing the culture.”

Plattus said many people have been affected by suicide and having a display like this makes the conversation unavoidable.

The assistant director of Counseling and Psychological Services and Interim Director of wellness and health promotion, Shelly Ridgeway, said she likes the name of the program because it makes a statement.

“It really speaks to in and of itself that we need to speak up. There needs to not be a stigma; there needs to not be fear about talking about these issues,” Ridgeway said. “It’s really important for people to seek help.”

Ridgeway said the goal is to let students know that their mental health is a priority and it’s important to know where resources on campus are for them.

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“With people being that much in need, we really need to be doing more to reach our students,” Ridgeway said. “To impact them in ways that will be meaningful to them, so that they know how and when to get the services that are available to them.”

The national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is now available by simply dialing 988.

Staff reporter Jamilah Lewis can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jamilahlewis. To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

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