On the ninth anniversary of her son’s suicide, Judy Broward tried explain to UF students the tragedy that once seemed senseless to her.
“If I had known then what I know now, I would have done so many different things,” she told an audience of about 100 students Thursday night at the Reitz Amphitheater.
Broward was part of a suicide perspective panel at Keep Hope Alive, a suicide awareness forum and vigil.
A group of students from UF’s Psychology of Suicide Class hosted the event, which featured the five-person panel, performances and a candlelight remembrance vigil. UF’s Counseling and Wellness Center, the Alachua County Crisis Center, Aware, To Write Love On Her Arms and UF Psychology Club co-sponsored the event.
Meggen Sixbey, assistant coordinator of emergency and crisis response services with the UF Counseling and Wellness Center, referenced a study that showed 10 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds considered suicide in the last year.
It also showed that 1.4 percent attempted it.
“At our campus, that’s about 700 people,” Sixbey said.
This once included Lindsey Dhans, a 27-year-old occupational therapy graduate student who said she attempted suicide once in high school and again as a college freshman. Dhans said she had struggled with talking about her emotions.
She was glad students were trying to remove the stigma of talking about suicide.
“You have 100 people that were here and just heard the word suicide over and over again,” she said. “They’re going to tell someone.”
Jordan Agrippe, a 21-year-old psychology senior, and Robert Bolduc, a 22-year-old criminology senior, light candles at the Keep Hope Alive suicide awareness vigil Thursday evening. Eighty-five candles were lit in remembrance of people who commit suicide every day.
