Suicide prevention strategies for LGBT students at a university

University Suicide Prevention

A local university in a mid-size city in the upper Midwest is concerned about the dramatic increase in the rates of attempted suicides and suicides. The university's health center and local health department enlisted the help of the university's student advocacy group and St. Joseph Medical Center to help identify the cause of this problem and probable solutions to it. Following a comprehensive and organized healthcare needs assessment, the LGBT community in the university is identified as the most affected group. Based on reports from the institution's health department and mental health division, increased rates of suicide attempts and suicides occur among the LGBT student community. Additionally, most of the requests in the student advocacy center for information regarding STDs, suicide, and depression have come from this community. These reports are indicators of the university's apparent failure to meet the needs of this community and require suitable measures to enhance the institution's ability of reaching the LGBT students and community.

Assessment of the Target Population

As shown in scenario, the LGBT community is the most affected group since most of the requests for information on STDs, depression, and suicide come from members of this community. Additionally, the high rates of suicide attempts and suicides are evident in this community more than any other student group in the university. One of the most important aspect towards addressing this problem is understanding the unique attributes of this population and the needs of LGBT individuals. In this case, the unique attribute regarding the LGBT community that could cause an increase in suicide attempts is mental disorders. According to Haas et al. (2011), mental disorders have been found to have a strong link to suicide attempts among adolescents and adults in the LGBT community. The increased search for information regarding depression and suicide by LBGT student community at the university is an indicator of mental or psychological problems that in turn contribute to a spike in suicide attempts. Sweet (n.d.) states that depression among the LGBT community is an indicator of mental or psychological problems whose symptoms include suicide ideation and attempts. Additionally, the rise in requests for information on STDs indicate that LGBT students are engaged in unsafe sexual behaviors and practices that are strongly associated with the mental or psychological problems and the subsequent suicide attempts. At the moment, it is relatively difficult to segment the LGBT student population because most of the requests are submitted in an anonymous fashion that makes it difficult to determine who is most at risk. Therefore, the entire population should be regarded as being most at risk of suicide attempts and suicides.

Current Marketing Strategies

Despite the increased rates of suicide attempts and suicides, the university has established marketing strategies to reach out to this community. These strategies entail the use of fliers, banner advertisements on the website, 30-second promotional spots on the university's radio station, and a 24-hour helpline and the health center. As evident in the case, these strategies have largely been ineffective in addressing the needs and issues facing the LGBT community and in turn contributed to the spike in suicide attempts and suicides among this group. These marketing strategies lack a personal touch that identifies/relates with the specific LGBT student and are seemingly superficial. The university health center has also had a low impact despite the increased requests for help because most requests are anonymous. Moreover, the health center has not adopted methods that would help address the emerging issues in a general way.

Ethical Implications

The two major ethical implications of these suggestions are protection of privacy and likelihood of segmenting this group from the other populations in the university. The health fairs and awareness campaigns are suitable strategies because they provide general messages that would still protect the privacy of those who would want to be anonymous when seeking for help. While marketing towards this population only is suitable to increase outreach to the LGBT community, it could result in segmenting the group from other populations. This would in turn be unethical because it is likely to contribute to discrimination and further complicate the ability to offer timely and beneficial help to these students. Therefore, the adopted measures should not only focus on this group but also encourage other populations to seek for help through and from the established channels.

In conclusion, the situation at the university is an example of a healthcare crisis in a learning institution. Based the analysis, this crisis is brought by unsuitable marketing strategies that do not tailor messages in a manner that incorporates personal touch and encourage LGBT students to seek for help. Consequently, the university could consider conducting regular health fairs and regular social marketing and awareness campaigns in order to increase outreach to the LGBT community. However, these measures should be combined with existing marketing strategies in order to provide a holistic approach for reaching this population.