Suicide is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and statistical analysis of suicide by profession reveals that physicians and veterinarians experience abnormally high suicide rates. This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive literature review over what some general theories of suicide are, why these professions exhibit high suicide rates, what assistance is currently being provided, and where do these assistance efforts succeed or fail. Moreover, this paper addresses what advancements may be made within these fields to further combat suicide in physicians and veterinarians. To achieve this, general theories behind suicide, risk factors unique to or heavily prevalent in these professions, and current assistance efforts are read, organized, and summarized.<br/><br/>A summary of these risk factors includes stress and mental health disorders accumulated through school and work, personal and professional isolation, access to lethal substances, suicide contagion, exposure to euthanasia, and the role of perfectionism. There are several assistance efforts in place with the most successful ones being highly personalized, but many are still underutilized. Moreover, the stigma of suicide pervades these professions and is addressed by several researchers as something to combat or prevent. Going forward, it is hopeful that not only will more assistance efforts will be created and provided for physicians and veterinarians suffering from suicidal tendencies, but efforts to reduce the stigma of suicide be implemented and utilized as soon as possible.
Education and Prevention: An Open Communication Against the Sexual Abuse and Grooming of Adolescents
With the assistance of my thesis committee, I created a podcast to fulfill my objective of interviewing survivors of sexual abuse/grooming practices and their support systems. I utilized this method to have in-depth discussions and provide people with a safe space to share their experiences. By doing so, we were able to reflect on the areas in which professionals can improve on recognizing signs of abuse in their communities. My goal was to show how training teachers to recognize signs of trauma is essential for effectively assisting the population we serve. Ultimately, this came down to what instruction was taught in the Teachers College. Curricula centered on properly managing trauma in the classroom, including sexual abuse, should be required for courses in the upper and lower division degree program for Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.
modern concerns for school safety suggest there is a need for more police officers in
schools. Over the last 70 years of School Resource Officer (SRO) programs, the variations
of SRO program implementation and the expectation of roles and responsibilities has
produced conflicting research on benefits or harms of police in the school environment.
The purpose of police in schools has shuffled from relationship-building ambassadors for
the community, to educators on crime prevention and drug use, to law enforcement
officers for punitive juvenile sanctions, to counselors and role models for legal
socialization, and other roles for emergency management and crisis response. Plans to
place more officers in schools for purposes of “school safety” requires an examination of
the SROs’ roles within the school, their interactions with students, and how these roles
and interactions contribute to safety. This study explores the roles of SROs to
understand the variations of roles within a program and understand factors influencing
the roles of SROs (e.g., school climate, initiation by others). To evaluate these roles and
potential influences, cluster analysis and multinomial regression models were developed
from one year of SRO-student interaction data (n=12, 466) collected daily from the
Richland County (SC) Sheriff’s Department SRO Division located in South Carolina.
These interactions were defined by the framework of counseling, educating, and law
enforcing roles. Results indicate the variations of roles performed are largely influenced
by the school type (e.g., elementary), SRO perceptions (e.g., counselor), and the
engagement of SROs by school officials for specific roles.