Last week, I wrote about one of the challenges of preventing suicide among college students: Parental notification.
Since campuses as institutions take on responsibility for students in loco parentis, in the place of a parent, they act in what they deem to be the best interest of students. In the case of notifying parents about their child's suicidal risk, the actions of a campus may vary. To oversimplify, some notify, some don't. And all have different reasons.
When it comes down to it, a goal of campuses is to produce young adults who know how to navigate the world independently. Calling in a parent might feel like it goes against that goal. Legally, when students in the U.S. are over 18, they are adults - and giving them the opportunity to make decisions about their lives without parental involvement seems like the right thing to do.
When talking about this topic with friends, one suggested, half-jokingly, that the U.S. raise the age of legal adulthood from 18 to 22. When I was 18, I would have balked at that idea - of course I can make decisions for myself! Now, 18 is way back in that metaphorical rear-view mirror. When I look back on those 4 years, it's clear just how much I - and many others in that age group - had to learn about decision-making.
But, if I was struggling with my mental health, would I have wanted my parents involved? When I worked on campus and had students come to me with these kinds of concerns, often parents were, as much as I hate to say it, part of the problem. Students were coming to me, or to their peers, because they weren't comfortable going to parents or mental health professionals (see last week's post for one possible reason why).
Many campuses are going to create hard-and-fast rules, policies that guide - if not dictate - their actions in regard to parental notification about suicide risk. But, my struggle to find the right fit for this small piece of the campus suicide prevention puzzle has led me back to two ideas I often find myself balancing:
- At the individual or clinical level, rules don't always work in real-life situations. The importance of knowing each student and knowing what would be right for that person cannot be understated. When a student says, "I just can't talk to my parents about this," it may be because a parent has outdated ideas about mental health and mental illness, or because a parent is abusive. Unless a campus counseling center is prepared to thoroughly support a student and a family through a mental health "handoff," parental notification should be carefully considered. A "see you later" approach, where a student is handed back to parents to deal with the crisis, without the supports in place and available on campus, can be dangerous.
- A comprehensive approach is critical to suicide prevention. Suicide prevention doesn't begin and end with a student and that student's parents - it reaches out to the whole campus community, encompassing roommates and hallmates, classmates and faculty, the campus physical plant and the staff of the counseling center. If a student is struggling, that student is affected by and affects many others around them - using strategies that influence all aspects of campus life, not just individuals, can have great impact.
As a challenge can often be an opportunity in disguise, I'm hopeful that campuses face this particular opportunity with the perspective I imagine they would encourage students to take: thinking critically, examining different sides of the situation, and looking for solutions that might just break the mold.