{"id":45170,"date":"2022-08-31T09:48:13","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T13:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=45170"},"modified":"2022-09-09T08:07:53","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T12:07:53","slug":"utc-events-to-raise-awareness-for-suicide-prevention-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2022\/08\/utc-events-to-raise-awareness-for-suicide-prevention-education\/","title":{"rendered":"UTC events to raise awareness of suicide prevention education"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Center

September is National Suicide Prevention Month.<\/p><\/div>\n

Lucy White isn\u2019t far removed from being a college student.<\/p>\n

Since arriving at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in February, she\u2019s been pleasantly surprised by an openness to talk about mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cI graduated from undergraduate 12 years ago and mental health on a college campus was very different at that time. You didn\u2019t celebrate being seen in a counselor\u2019s office for mental health concerns,\u201d said White, assistant director for education and suicide prevention at the UTC Center for Wellbeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am impressed by UTC and the students here and their willingness to seek help and resources. I\u2019m seeing future leaders that can go on to have these conversations in a confident way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only a one-generation difference since her undergraduate days at Montreat College in North Carolina, where she received a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology in 2010 before earning a master\u2019s in clinical mental health counseling from the University of Montevallo in Alabama in 2015.<\/p>\n

That generational difference, though, is profound.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a stigma to seek help so, just in a decade, the conversation has radically changed,\u201d White said. \u201cI tell students when I\u2019m in front of them in the classroom, \u2018Thank you for what you\u2019re doing and having these conversations.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and White has been busy coordinating programming geared toward mental health and suicide awareness, along with educating people about resources, professionals and different organizations that can help them if there\u2019s a mental health emergency.<\/p>\n

White said the month would be chockful of events at UTC, varying from small to large, including:<\/p>\n