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USP Creates Mental Health Office Following Four Student Suicides in the Last Two Months

08/01/2018 - 13h03

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BIANKA VIEIRA
SÃO PAULO

The University of São Paulo (USP) has registered at least four student suicides in the months of May and June of this year. The occurrences brought about internal discussions that led to the creation of an on campus mental health office.

According to Andres Eduardo Aguirre Antúnez, the deputy director of the Institute of Psychology as well as the coordinator of the initiative, students on all campuses will be able to contact the office through an online platform so they can start receiving orientation. After, face-to-face meetings may also be scheduled.

Antúnez said that the discussions that resulted in the initiative began in September of 2017, in connection with the student suicides that took place that year.

Divulgação/USP
Campus of the University of São Paulo (USP)
Campus of the University of São Paulo (USP)

This is the first time that the University of São Paulo has set up a unified psychological assistance office.

The issue seemed to strike a chord on social networks. One comment read: "I'm in my last year and making it through college was not easy. I had three emotional breakdowns throughout my undergraduate program."

According to Lígia Blois, a civil engineering student who is on the University's Mental Health Front (FUSM), the workload, relationships with students and professors, pressure to get good grades and high expectations are among the most common causes of stress that students cite.

"It is very serious when students get ill and have to go home, because the university doesn't have a space to offer support, or something along those lines that stimulates and allows them to stay." said student Luiza Burgareli.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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