evaluate the suicide potential of Susie using the SAD PERSONS scale. Review the module materials concerning suicide (text, readings and resources). Discuss evaluation, including how rated Susie's suicide potential. How might someone try to help her?

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. It is so big, scary, and lonely. It 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. In 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 15-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 appeal to her very much.

Life is certainly bleak. For Susie it is just too hard to live.