A student at Université Laval in Quebec City was found to have hanged himself in a building under renovation on campus in the early hours of Feb. 28. The young man was found by university security agents and could not be revived, local paper Le Soleil reported.
Suicide is a significant cause of death among teenagers and young adults. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), suicide is the second highest cause of death for youth aged 10-24, second only to motor vehicle accidents.
On average, there are 294 youth who die from suicide each year in Canada alone.
According to the 2008 American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment survey, 11.2 per cent of students in Canadian schools had considered suicide, while 1.4 per cent reported having attempted suicide at least once in the last school year.
In some universities, new programs are being put in place to help detect early signs of depression that could lead to suicide.
“At Laval, there’s the ‘sentinel’ program which teaches anyone over the age of 18 who is interested how to detect early signs of depression and help those people,” explained Sylvie Nadeau, general director of the Quebec Association for Suicide Prevention.
Nadeau said this was a great program that should be implemented in universities across the country.
The university has a section of its website dedicated to suicide prevention, which answers a variety of questions concerning suicide.
Carleton’s Health and Counseling Services also have information about suicide, offering a variety of resources to those who may be feeling suicidal or know of someone who is. This is also the case for many universities across the campus, yet suicides still take place every year on Canadian university campuses.
Despite the rates of suicide, it is still considered to be a taboo subject in many communities. The CMHA explains there is still much stigma associated with the subject of suicide. This in turn allows for wrongful myths and attitudes about suicide to be perpetuated and because of this, some people feel like they cannot go and seek the help they may need.
There is still much that can be done to help prevent students from committing suicide, Nadeau said.
“What they are doing is a good start but it isn’t enough. There needs to be more information about what resources and services are available to students.”
