Suicide Assessment

i ierome, ise iii, iJaepresseo. nelivei in one oiir,6 pboi,liiniii Ciiv, Afritin Amdiic;,i I neighborhoods of a large urban area. He finished high school, in a way. Reading and

writing are not really some of his strengths. He managed to slip through each grade because he had a knack for playing basketball. He wasn't quite good enough for playing in the pros or even in college, but he had been good enough to play on the high school varsity team. Sports and connections with his family helped to keep him out of gang involvement.

Jerome is also bored. He has looked everywhere for a job but just can't find anything. He almost landed one as a janitor at a local supermarket. However, one of the prior employees returned to the city and got it instead. Even that job only paid minimum wage. lt was hardly enough to move out of his parents' home and live on his own.

That's another thing. All his parents seem to do lately is nag. They want him to get out and do something useful. He tries to tell them how hard he has been looking for a job, but they don't seem to understand. His father has been working at a local clothing store for years. Jerome's family is poor but certainly not starving. His parents are also disappointed that he didn't go on to college. They have been hoping that Jerome's life would be better than their own in terms of opportunity and financial security. Now Jerome has given up. The only thing left to do, it seems, is to sit around some of the local bars and drink with his old buddies who are in similar situations. How depressing. Lately, Jerome is considering ending it all. What is the use, anyway? He has no future. Things don't matter. Maybe he willjust borrow a friend's old wreck of a car and drive off the Center Street Bridge. One of these days maybe he will do just that-end it all.

b. Susie, age 17, has just started college this semester. She is depressed. All she seems to do is homework. She has opted to attend the major public university in her state. Her choice was based mostly on pressure from her high school steady boyfriend of two years who also wanted to attend this school. lt is so big, scary, and lonely. lt is also impersonal. She is just a freshman in classes of up to 300 other students. Sometimes she feels as if her entire identity is an identification number. The stark contrast with her high school experience makes it even worse. ln high school, she had been very active in extracurricular activities and had scores of friends.

Her grades aren't very good either. She was accustomed to receiving almost straight A's in high school. Here she is barely maintaining a B average. She is taking an accelerated biology course that is baffling her with complicated theories. She is also taking an upper- level Spanish course that seems impossible to master. She might as well be taking ancient Russian. No matter how many hours she works, she can barely maintain a B- average in that course.

Another problem is her boyfriend. She used to think that she really loved him, but he just can't seem to find much time for her these days. He loves school. He is enjoying his studies and making new friends. Lately, whenever they get together, all they seem to do is fight. She is feeling like quite a "bitch" because of her incessant pleading that he gives her more of his time.

Loneliness is another problem area. There are two or three people on her dormitory floor with whom she can talk a little and occasionally goes out for pizza. Susie doesn't do much else, though. All the other students seem to be having fun. But then, even if she did have friends, she couldn't do anything with them. She drives herself to study almost every waking hour.

Susie is very close to her family, who live in another city. Several weeks ago, her uncle died

suddenly and unexpectedly. She had been very close to him and misses him very much. She knows she shouldn't keep calling her parents and crying to them on the phone about how depressed she is. They have their own problems.

Lately, she has been thinking about killing herself. She has thought about jumping off the top of her 1S-story dorm, but she doesn't really know how to get up there. Maybe she can find some poison. Sometimes she thinks about what substances are poisonous. Cleaning fluid and ammonia don't appealto her very much.