Suicide Attempt Rate Rises

The number of attempted suicides at Harvard hit a three-year high this year, according to statistics released by the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD).

From Sept. 2003 to Aug. 2004, there were five attempted suicides, while the previous year there were three. The year before that no suicide attempts were reported.

An incident counts as an attempted suicide “if the person made an overt attempt to harm themselves (ingested pills, cut their wrists, etc.),” HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano wrote in an e-mail.

HUPD reported one “sudden death” in the 2002-2003 academic year and another in the 2003-2004 year.

The term “sudden death” is used in these reports because “only the Medical Examiner’s Office can classify a sudden death as a suicide,” according to Catalano’s e-mail.

In December 2002, Winthrop House resident Marian H. Smith ’04 took her own life after sending an e-mail to one of her friends that laid out her plans for suicide.

Anthony “Deuce” Fonseca ’04-’05, also a Winthrop House resident, was found dead in his dorm room in an apparent suicide on Feb. 22.

Both Smith and Fonseca’s deaths are considered sudden deaths by HUPD.

While HUPD has only released data for the last three years at this point, The Crimson reported in January that over the last 10 years, at least 15 Harvard undergraduates have committed suicide.

And HUPD told The Crimson in January that police responded to 14 calls classified as attempted suicides between 2000 and 2003.

HUPD’s most recent statistics come after the College has restructured its mental health services system, consolidating it under a single administrator—Paul J. Barreira, who was named Director of University Counseling, Academic Support and Mental Health Services on July 1.

Barreira pointed to the limitations of the statistics, saying students might not uniformly report attempted suicides.

In a Crimson poll conducted in December 2003, about 10 percent of respondents said they seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year and around 1 percent said they had attempted suicide in that time.

“Everyone who is in trouble doesn’t end up on police [records],” he said. “We keep encouraging people to tell us, and then we have higher numbers, but its probably just students doing what we want them to do, which is getting help rather than sleeping it off.”

Under the restructured system, it should be easier for students to find help for mental health problems, according to University Health Services (UHS) director David S. Rosenthal ’59.

“No matter where a student comes in, whether it’s because they are having study problems, are insomniacs or have problems with their roommates, that will all be coordinated so there will be better coverage,” he said.

Mental Health Services Chief Richard D. Kadison wrote in an e-mail last night that his department strives to reach out to students in need.

“As a most recent example, and with the help of student groups, today, we participated in activitities supporting national depression screening day at our health fair and had more than 700 students go through the screening, the largest number we have ever had,” he wrote.

Andrew L. Kalloch ’06, co-chair of the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Group (MHAAG), said the statistics may be misleading.

“One [suicide] as opposed to zero is a statistically insignificant difference. That’s not to say that one life is insignificant,” he said.

Kalloch said MHAAG is planning an upcoming panel on suicide in November.

“We think that while there’s been improvements to the mental health system, especially in the last year, the work is not done,” he said. “The work is never done.”

—Katharine A. Kaplan contributed to the reporting of this story. —Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at alberts@fas.harvard.edu.