Five suicides in four months: it happened in the prestigious British university of Cambridge. Academic authorities have opened an investigation to clarify the causes of the deaths: so far, however, no links have been found between the deaths. Graham Virgo, Senior Vice Chancellor for Education, pointed out that the students who were all in different colleges.
All five deaths occurred between March and June of this year: one in March, three in May and one last month. The university said, however, so far only one death has been officially deemed suicide by the coroner: the other four should still be considered suicide suspects.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic death of five Cambridge University students in recent months,” writes the university in a statement. “Our thoughts go out a lot to the families and friends of students who have died. I want to reassure you that the University is taking this extremely seriously and is determined to work to help prevent future deaths. ” In particular, «the University, together with the interested colleges, has established a rapid incident response group with the involvement of colleagues from the local public health and the national health system “. University spokespersons also said they would expanded suicide prevention budget about 10%.
All the dead students “have been esteemed members of our community and the colleges are in contact with their parents to support them in this extremely difficult time.” And again: «Nothing is more important than the safety of our students. Staff at the University and its colleges work hard to identify and help those who may be vulnerable. I’m Several sources of student support are available: every university community in which they live and study, the university itself and the professional services it provides, the national health system. Unfortunately, in all universities, here in the UK and internationally, an increasing number of young people uses consulting services e reports mental health problems“.
According to a report from the World Health Organization, globally suicide is the second leading cause of death (immediately after traffic accidents) among the under 30s. In Italy, in particular, Istat data record about 4,000 suicides a year: of these, over 5% concern children under 24. This is about 200 cases per year.
Source: Vanity Fair
