This week on #SPSM Chat co-hosts Rudy Caseres (@RudyCaseres), Marie Shanley (@Mxiety), and Hudson Harris (@DanielleGlick) discuss “How College Life Might Lead To Suicide” with guest Dr. Jessi Gold (@DrJessiGold).

Watch as we discuss issues such as:

What are the factors that can lead a college student to a suicidal crisis?

How can mental health professionals best support college students in distress?

What are some effective classwork accommodations that are specific to people with mental health challenges?

Should a student experiencing suicidal thoughts take an academic leave?

Further Reading and Watching:

7 Little Ways to Deal With the Emotional Roller Coaster That Is College

How to Maintain Mental and Physical Health in College

What’s the Deal with Antidepressants and College Life?

Solid Gold Advice: How Do I Manage Stress During Finals?

*Watch SPSM Chat live every Sunday 6pm PT/9pm ET at Twitter.com/spsmchat as well as on the SPSM YouTube channel, Facebook page, and Mixer channel. All past episodes are archived and available to watch on-demand at spsmchat.com.

**SPSM Chat includes content about suicide and other experiences that may be traumatizing to you. You may experience strong or overwhelming emotions as a result. If you find yourself in distress or crisis, we encourage you to seek out support that works for you. Many people find it helpful to talk to a friend, family member, or someone else they trust.

If you would like formal crisis support, you can call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline ‘1-800-273-TALK (8255)’, Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada), or The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. If you don’t like talking on the phone, you can text HOME to 741741 to get to Crisis Text Line, or you can try Lifeline Crisis Chat. If you’d like to talk to a peer, warmline.org contains links to warmlines in the United States. If you’re not in the U.S., you can go to https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/ for a connection to crisis centers around the world.

Many of these resources could utilize restrictive interventions, like active rescues (wellness or welfare checks) involving law enforcement or emergency services. A warmline is least likely to do this, but still might have these policies. You can ask if this is a possibility at any point in your conversation if this is a concern for you.

The following do not implement any restrictive interventions for people considering suicide:

Peerly Human online support groups: https://peerlyhuman.blogspot.com/
Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada)**

Jessica (“Jessi”) Gold, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine. She splits her clinical time between the Habif Health and Wellness Center and outpatient psychiatry at Barnes Jewish Hospital. She also teaches and mentors students and trainees, and is a regular writer for many media outlets. She has received numerous awards and accolades for her many contributions in the areas of mental health and psychiatry. She is a nationally recognized expert and speaks at national conferences, is interviewed regularly for news outlets, and consults for publishing and media.

Dr. Gold’s areas of interest are in college mental health, women’s mental health and gender equity, physician wellness, medical education, and the between popular media, stigma, and psychiatry. While she has published frequently in the more “traditional” methods of research papers and academic publications, she has also enjoyed teaching about mental health topics and decreasing stigma through writing for popular press outlets. She has been featured in, among others, Self, InStyle, Glamour, and the HuffPost.

In addition to her writing, Dr. Gold has presented on media as a tool for advocacy, leadership, and a way to combat misinformation nationally. She is very active on social media, particularly twitter (@drjessigold), and was named one of Medscape’s top 20 physician influencers on social media in 2019. She believes in using this medium to connect with and educate her patients on issues surrounding psychiatry and other mental health topics and to put a face to psychiatry that can help destigmatize and humanize the field.