{"id":36502,"date":"2021-08-04T14:43:08","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T14:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/adv\/alumni-news-media\/?p=36502"},"modified":"2022-07-18T18:05:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T18:05:18","slug":"taking-suicide-out-of-the-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/adv\/alumni-news-media\/2021\/08\/04\/taking-suicide-out-of-the-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking suicide out of the darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” background_image=”36682″ css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”150px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” use_row_as_full_screen_section_slide=”no” text_align=”left” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column_inner width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1628088050911{padding-top: 15px !important;padding-right: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;padding-left: 15px !important;background-color: rgba(24,41,87,0.8) !important;*background-color: rgb(24,41,87) !important;}”]<\/p>\n

Taking suicide out of the darkness<\/h1>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”150px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” text_align=”left” background_color=”#7eb1dc” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Dr. Steven Schonfeld \u201974M (MD) dedicates his life to suicide prevention<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_column_text]In 1968, when Steven Schonfeld \u201974M (MD) was a 19-year-old college student, his father died by suicide. Thirty years later, his brother also died by suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family has been deeply affected by suicide,\u201d says Dr. Schonfeld, <\/a>who retired in 2018 after a 43-year career as an accomplished intensivist\/pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten through these tragedies by getting the support we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s been a difficult road for him, his family, and others affected by suicide.<\/p>\n

When his father died, Schonfeld was at Brown University, five hours away from his family in Rochester. Nicki, his girlfriend\u2014and now wife of 52 years\u2014was there for him and provided the support he needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, people didn\u2019t know what to do, so they just didn\u2019t talk about it,\u201d he says. \u201cThings are changing, but it\u2019s still an issue that many are hesitant to address. Loss survivors continue to need support well after a suicide death occurs.\u201d Dr. Schonfeld adds that suicide is preventable, with the right information, resources, and support systems in place.<\/p>\n

Schonfeld\u2019s personal experience with suicide, his commitment to medicine, and his connection to Rochester led him and Nicki to make the first-ever endowed gift to support the Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ Medical Center\u2019s (URMC\u2019s) Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide<\/a> (CSPS). The center was founded as the Laboratory for Suicide Studies in 1988 by Drs. Eric Caine, now professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry, and Yeates Conwell, professor and vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry<\/a>, and expanded to the CSPS in 1998.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s gift will help support medical student education, bring experts to campus for lectures and meetings, and provide pilot funding to help faculty and trainees pursue novel research in suicide prevention.<\/p>\n

\u201cRochester had been in my sights for a while,\u201d says Dr. Schonfeld. \u201cIt made sense to set up a program to support the science and study of suicide where I grew up and went to medical school.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to providing philanthropic support to the CSPS, Dr. Schonfeld has also partnered with Dr. Conwell and others to provide suicide prevention education to URMC\u2019s School of Medicine and Dentistry medical students. For instance, he has attended virtual conferences with\u00a0 postdoctoral fellows who are developing careers in suicide prevention research, giving them his distinctive perspective as both a loss survivor and a medical professional.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuicide is still a stigmatized topic that often flies under the radar and Dr. Schonfeld is doing a great deal to change that,\u201d says Dr. Conwell. \u201cUnfortunately, there\u2019s a mismatch between the pressing needs of people and communities affected by suicide on one hand and then what we can bring to bear to address the problem on the other. But, because of Dr. Schonfeld\u2019s and his wife\u2019s generosity and his willingness to talk about his personal loss, our center can educate more people about suicide risk, assessment, and management and we can continue to translate our research into practice to help more people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helping others who have been affected by suicide has long been a priority for Dr. Schonfeld. For 10 years, he\u2019s been involved in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)<\/a>. Over the last three years, he\u2019s been giving \u201cTalk Saves Lives<\/a>\u201d presentations\u2014including virtual ones during COVID-19\u2014to community and professional groups in the Baltimore area. He often addresses schoolteachers, veterans, older adults, first responders, families and teenagers, and those in the medical and LGBTQ communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s vital that we get the word out, move suicide out of the darkness, and help people to see and treat it as the medical condition it is,\u201d he says. \u201cThink about it: with a heart attack, we have to look for warning signs. If we take the same approach to suicide, we can save lives.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_empty_space height=”10px” image_repeat=”no-repeat” css=”.vc_custom_1628190910590{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”full_width” use_row_as_full_screen_section_slide=”no” text_align=”left” background_color=”#ffffff” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_single_image image=”36622″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” mkd_css_animation=””][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”full_width” use_row_as_full_screen_section_slide=”no” text_align=”left” background_color=”#e9e5d7″ css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide<\/h3>\n

The Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide<\/a> conducts studies in clinical settings and in the community that aim to untangle the complicated nature of suicide and suicide prevention. The center\u2019s researchers focus on developing prevention interventions that target high-risk groups and individuals as well as factors that place them at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuicide and suicide prevention are very challenging issues that cannot be oversimplified,\u201d says Dr. Conwell, who is also the academic chief of URMC\u2019s Geriatric Psychiatry Program and director of its Office for Aging and Health Services. \u201cPeople don\u2019t take their lives because of one reason, such as a breakup or an illness\u2014it\u2019s the interaction of issues in people\u2019s live that we must understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conwell adds that psychiatric issues are often undiagnosed, which compounds the risk of suicide. He stresses the importance of the biopsychosocial approach<\/a> when working with those at high-risk. URMC\u2019s Dr. George Engel\u2014a former professor of Dr. Schonfeld\u2019s\u2014developed and implemented the approach in collaboration with Dr. John Romano. The approach considers a person\u2019s biological, psychological, and social factors and the complex interactions among them in order to better understand health, illness, and care.<\/p>\n

\u201cFew centers of excellence in suicide prevention research take the kind of multidisciplinary view that we do,\u201d Conwell adds. \u201cWe\u2019ve found that the most effective prevention techniques\u2014the ones that save lives\u2014take into account the variety of factors that make people who they are.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat” css=”.vc_custom_1628108467333{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”full_width” use_row_as_full_screen_section_slide=”no” text_align=”left” background_color=”#e9e5d7″ css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Facts about suicide<\/h3>\n