The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/17/07 Section: News

Media Credit: SARA GUEVARA Nuçi's Space is sponsoring Depression and Suicide Awareness Week with events to inform the community about these issues.

On the University campus, people are always championing a cause and trying to raise awareness. However, the topic is not usually the second-leading cause of death among college-age people - suicide.

Depression and Suicide Awareness Week will kick off its informative events on Monday starting with free concerts in the Tate Plaza.

The week is a continuation of the work Nuci's Space, a local nonprofit organization, makes an effort to produce year round. The staff and students involved help to reach out to those in need of counseling, medicine and support as they battle depression.

Nuci's Space intern coordinator Alyssa Bernstein, a senior from Marietta, said there is no place like it. She said on arriving at the University as a transfer student, she had never heard of the organization, but she knows now that she never wants to work anywhere else.

"It's providing a service for a huge part of our community," she said.

Bernstein said as a staff they try to emphasize that anyone is welcome to spend time at Nuci's. With suicide, she said, it is important to stress that each person is affected by that one person's choice whether they live or die. The week's events are not only for those with depression.

"I think all of us at Nuci's feel drawn to it because everyone is affected in someway," she said. "Students need to know that they don't have to look far to find someone who may be suffering from depression. But just because you come to an event doesn't mean you are depressed."

The main focus of the week is to undo the stigma that depression and suicide both seem to get from society. People at Nuci's believe depression is a disease, she said.

When Nuci Phillips, for whom the space is named, was trying to get help at the University Health Center, he was put on a wait list for a month and committed suicide before his appointment came.

Bernstein said the staff makes a huge effort to be as connected to the people who enter the doors as possible.

Cory Parkinson, a senior and Nuci's intern, is involved with most of the musical events at Nuci's. She said the organization broadened her perspective of mental illness and has been a great opportunity to meet people she would have never met otherwise.

"It brings music together with something like mental illness that I never would have put together," she said. "You never know if a band will respond, but when they do, it shows that they are more than just a band because they want to help people."

Mollie Kimmelman, a junior, was looking to volunteer when she found Nuci's Space.

"Anyone can come in and use the space for coffee, to study or for music," she said. "The staff here - including Linda, Nuci's mom, who is one of the best people I've ever met - welcomes everyone to come."

Kimmelman said depression is not discussed enough within the college-aged sect of society, but many people are affected whether they show it or not.

"It's a very hidden disease for a lot of people," she said. "Seeing how Linda dealt with her situation has really made a difference for me. Survivors have two choices: to go on with life or to get depressed themselves. Linda has devoted her life to this cause and I can't help but respect that."

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