By Amanda Perelli
Quinnipiac University, in Hamden Connecticut, claims to be committed to “building one of the most environmentally friendly campuses in America,” according to its 2018-19 Student Handbook. But, the private institution still has a long way to go–with more steps taken back than forward from the university.
How does Quinnipiac stack up?
READ MORE: At shorthand.com
By Sarah Russell and Amanda Perelli
Out of the Darkness Community Walk held in Hamden, Conn. on Oct. 7, 2018
For the last decade, Hamden residents have gathered to raise money and awareness for suicide prevention at the Out of Darkness Community Walk. On Oct. 7 participants met at Hamden Town Center Park and walked along the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail in Hamden.
“[The event] also is a public memorial for people’s grief and a place they can share with others their grief, which is hard to come by in the society,” event director Sean Heather McGraw said.
Over 600 people registered for the event and McGraw estimates about 450 people showed up.
The $53,394 raised will help programming in schools, churches and the community.
The money is also used to help support the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and support survivors.
Vice President of the Student Veterans Organization (SVO) at Quinnipiac, Michael Strahl, walked with members of SVO. As a veteran, he said he walked to help fellow soldiers who struggle with mental illness.
“I think it’s incredible,” Strahl said. “It brings attention to one of the most important tragedies we face. Most importantly, it shows people that they are not alone in their fight against suicide or in their grief of a loved one or friend they have lost to suicide.”
Suicide is a sensitive topic, but should still be talked about, said Stahl. Events like the Out of the Darkness walk let people know they have support in their community.
Signs at the Out of the Darkness walk in Hamden, Conn.
“[The walk] makes me think about the people that made it through multiple tours and survived just to come home and take their own lives because of their struggles that we aren’t aware of,” Strahl said. “If we can prevent just one suicide a month or year, we were successful in our efforts.”
Other than this event, Strahl believes it’s important that everyone knows the signs of and feels comfortable discussing mental health with peers.
“Just talk about it more,” Strahl said. “Don’t be afraid to bring it up and learn the signs so you can be there for someone contemplating suicide. I think Quinnipiac University did an amazing job with Fresh Check Day. More of that. Students as well as the community need to know it is alright to speak about suicide.”
For resources, people can refer to 2-1-1, an online and phone service available for those in need, concerning issues of housing and shelter, utilities, employment, healthcare, mental health and addictions.
“We are a free, confidential, information referral service that services people across Connecticut– 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Annie Scully, a research analyst and community outreach coordinator at United Way in Connecticut.
The service has 54 contact specialists, who have six weeks of rigorous training to be able to handle crisis situations from callers. 2-1-1 is funded by the state.
When looking at the statistics of calls in Hamden, callers reached out 1,126 times for mental health and addiction problems between Oct. 1, 2017 and Oct. 1, 2018. This is the second highest amount of calls behind those for housing and shelter.
Statistics of callers seeking help for crisis intervention and suicide from ct.211counts.org
Of mental health and addiction calls, 680 were about requests for mental health services and 382 were for crisis intervention and suicide.
While the ‘under 18’ demographic is the smallest in the mental health services category, it is the largest in the crisis intervention and suicide, with 237 of the 382 calls coming from those in high school or younger.
“While under 18 callers might represent one of the smallest percentage of callers across the state it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have the least amount of need,” Scully said.
Scully hopes that people in the younger age demographic will turn to their website for help, which has programs such as Mobile Crisis, which is a service that dispatches clinicians that are trained to deal with people under 18, who are dealing with emotional crisis at school, home or in the community.
“We hope that in 2018 there’s people under 18 that are much more likely to jump on a computer than they are to make a phone call, so we also monitor our web traffic,” Scully said. “So in [fiscal year] ‘18 we had almost two million visits to our website, www.211ct.org, which we’ve made some pretty big enhancements recently to make that as user friendly as possible and to replicate a phone call as much as possible so people can really find the help they need on our website.”
So, why is the number of calls for mental health services so low for this demographic? Scully says that if school-age people knew about their resources they might be able to receive better help when dealing with mental health. In the past they have tried different strategies, such as creating a page on their website geared towards youth and young adults in collaboration with a local youth group.
“I think that the more people who know that 2-1-1 is a resource and that more people that know the kind of help and referrals 2-1-1 can provide by either calling or visiting our website the more people that will use it,” Scully said. “So if there is a class or opportunity for us to talk about 2-1-1 or market 2-1-1 in school systems across Connecticut I think that would be a great way to get the word out.”
Incorporating mental health awareness in the public schools is something Scully thinks could benefit students. In New York, mental health classes have already been implemented, requiring public schools to educate students on the signs and symptoms of mental health issues. The new law mandates these courses in hopes to educate students about resources and better understand mental health as a whole.
Connecticut has not made public any plans of incorporating these mandatory courses into the public school system. HQ Press reached out to Jody Goeler, superintendent of Hamden public schools, but did not receive a response.
By Amanda Perelli
The roads leading up to and surrounding Quinnipiac University’s main campus are lacking sidewalks. On Sept. 18 a Quinnipiac student was injured in a hit-and-run on Whitney Ave., which prompted HQ Press to investigate the safety of walking along these roads.
With a variety of bars and places for students to go, like Andale Mexican Restaurant, Odie’s Place, and Side Street Bar & Grill, there is an inconsistency of safe walking paths around them.
Click the interactive map below to watch GOPRO clips taken along the streets surrounding main campus.
By Shane Dennehy and Amanda Perelli
As quickly as the rain came down last week, it left– at least for most areas in Hamden. But some Quinnipiac University students and residents are still dealing with the aftermath of damage from Tuesday’s storm.
Hamden was struck with the highest amount of rainfall in Connecticut on Tuesday Sept. 25 at 8.5 inches, according to Hamden Town Engineer Mark Austin.
“That [rain was] highly, highly unusual, that much that quickly,” Austin said. “All the water came up very, very quickly but it also went away very quickly which, unlike say the Carolinas right now where they had so much water that stayed. Because it came down so fast, the systems had a very hard time trying to handle it when it initially came down.”
The town received quite a few calls on Tuesday, said Austin, and had over 60 road closures due to flooding. Hamden Police Department and Fire Department took care of the closures while the engineering department has been doing basic clean-ups around the area since.
“Our engineering department is in the process and will be over the next week or two of inspecting some of our local bridges to make sure that there weren’t any damage to those areas and receiving calls about sinkholes and other things that may have come up from the storm itself,” Austin said.
Quinnipiac students also experienced damage from the rain storm on Tuesday afternoon.
Chris Sour, a senior finance major at Quinnipiac, had to deal with two leaks in his off-campus house.
“I was on the top floor of my house and [leak] went from my room to my roommates room below me to even flooding the basement,” Sour said.
Sour had a leak through his ceiling and his window because his gutters were clogged. Sour’s landlord said he would come the next day to clean the gutters but he did not and the leak happened again the next day.
Taylor Pitts, a senior physical therapy major had to stay at a friends house because there was nowhere for her to park due to her driveway being flooded.
“I had to stay at a friends because there was nowhere for me to park my car once I got home,” Pitts said.
Pitts’ landlord spent the whole next day cleaning her basement and fixing her washer and dryer as well as her water heater and furnace.
As well as responding to drainage issues and about six phone calls for sinkholes, the department expects to see minor erosion around bridges.
“So far, so good on [the bridges], most of them seemed to fair pretty well – the ones we’ve looked at,” Austin said.
He believes there will be some minor erosion around the bridges, drainage issues and alot of sweeping and debris pick up.
“Nothing we normally don’t deal with, this is just all at once,” Austin said.
If you need to report damage you can contact Hamden Public Works at 203-287-2600, Hamden Engineering 203-287-7040, or go online to hamden.com and use their online reporting program SEECLICKFIX (seeclickfix.com) where your complaint will immediately be dispatched to the department with your concern.
A new batch of student reporters are starting in the HQ Press newsroom. Before reporting, we went around Quinnipiac and asked members in our community what they want to see in our coverage. Check us out on social media @hq_press on Instagram and Twitter. Send tips to hqpress.org@gmail.com.
