Backpack display hopes to prevent suicide among college students, fight mental health stigma
Students in Wilson Plaza look at backpacks representing college student suicides.
By James Barragan
Oct. 18, 2011 1:26 a.m.
The sight of hundreds of brightly colored backpacks scattered on the lawn in front of the Student Activities Center on Monday captured the attention of Christopher Wenell as he walked through campus.
The fourth-year philosophy student paused at the sight of 1,100 backpacks ““ part of an event to bring attention to the number of suicides on college campuses.
Wenell said he knew student-suicide rates were high. But he was still struck by the display.
“It’s about suicide, but you see all these kids’ backpacks and they’re like tombstones,” Wenell said.
The backpacks represent the number of college students who commit suicide in the United States each year, said Lehren MacKay, a fourth-year psychology student and president of the UCLA chapter of Active Minds, the student group that organized the event at UCLA.
The UCLA event marked the end of the West Coast section of the nationwide “Send Silence Packing” tour, organized by the national Active Minds chapter.
One of the goals of the event was to encourage people with mental health issues to reach out to others for help, rather than take an individual approach and deal with it alone, said Abby Albright, a first-year psychology student who plans to go into developmental psychology.
“I think it’s important because if you look around, these could be your brothers, sisters and family members,” MacKay said. “It’s something we have to address.”
Some of the backpacks included stories, photographs and letters addressed to the people they’re meant to represent.
One backpack, decorated with an orange handkerchief and photographs of a smiling young man, included a letter from a mother to her deceased son, Jay. The letter described the mother’s disbelief at his death, even years later.
Another backpack included the story of a paramedic who had to close the body bag of his friend who committed suicide.
“The stories on the backpacks are really moving ““ I’ve seen some people tearing up as they read them,” MacKay said. “Some of them are people who have gone through issues where they knew people who this happened to and (the display) really touched them.”
Kathryn Cooper, a road staffer with the nationwide tour, said the main goal behind the event was to change the conversation around mental health, especially around college campuses where people suffering from these issues are less likely to seek out help.
Cooper said that despite the resources available on college campuses, many affected students do not seek out help because of the stigma associated with mental health issues.
Cooper said that the display is trying to do away with that stigma. She added that people need to talk about this issue so students affected by it can recognize it and seek out help.
Sudden mood changes, dropping out of classes, becoming uncommunicative and a loss of interest in things that someone was previously passionate about are some possible signs of depression or other mental health issues, Cooper said.
Lily Connor, a first-year undeclared student, said she only came across the display because she was walking down Janss Steps. She said the message she got from reading some of the stories was that people with these types of issues should not be afraid to get help and support.
Other students, like Wenell, left the display with a personal message about how to help the situation.
“What it does for me is to make me be more considerate of my behavior toward others and be considerate of how people feel in general,” Wenell said. “Maybe if I’m more considerate, I can help prevent a suicide just by saying “˜Hey, how are you doing?’ It’s about the really small things.”
