In honor of National Suicide Awareness Month, Marshall University’s Counseling Center sponsored We Are… Here For You Day to give mental health information and resources to students.   

The We Are… Here for You Day let students know there are so many people here for them on campus and all the amazing services that Marshall has to offer.  

“We are a community and that we are here to help,” Lindsey Beck, Clinical G.A for the psychology department, said.  

“Events like this are important because when I was in my undergrad, I didn’t know about the counseling center or that it was offered to students for free,” Destinee Legget, a student intern at Marshall’s counseling center, said. “A lot of people don’t even know where Prichard Hall is, so I think it’s crucial to get the word out there and just remind people that mental health is important.”  

“It’s important to get the word out that depression is a thing because some people don’t believe that,” Legget said. “People may have suicidal thoughts and they don’t want to talk about it. It’s important for me to get the word out especially to the African American community because they don’t like to talk about mental health.”   

Besides giving students free food, hygiene products and mental health resources, the prevent suicide West Virginia booth was giving out promotional with the new 988 number and the suicide prevention text line: 741741. They were also informing students on tell-tell signs of depression and suicide they could look out for to help loved ones.  

“The good thing to do is notice a person, and if you know them and they’re kind of acting strange, maybe saying something like ‘I give up,’ ’the world would be better off without me,’ ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ or maybe people that have never been into drugs start using, their appearance and hygiene is getting worse, if they are withdrawing from you or anyone else, those could be signs something may be going on,” Mark Mason, intervention specialist at prevent suicide West Virginia, said. “It’s okay to be nosey; it’s always okay to ask that question: ‘are you thinking about suicide?’ Because asking that question can open the floodgates for that person to release what’s going on. So, it’s okay to say that seven-letter word: suicide.”   

Mason wants everyone to know that it’s okay to talk about your mental health and seek help.   

“There is help there, and it’s okay to get help, just like if you break your hand, you want to go to the hospital and get it fixed, so when you are dealing with some mental issues, it’s okay to get counseling. It’s okay to get help,” Mason said.   

Mason wants to challenge every student and faculty member to put the 988 number and the 741741-text line number on their phones so that they could be visible to their students and to them.