TEXT C After their 20-year-old
son hanged himself during his winter break from the University of Arizona five
years ago, Donna and Phil Satow wondered what signs they had overlooked, and
started asking other students for answers. What grew from this
soul searching was Ulifeline (www. ulifeline, org), a Web site where students
can get answers to questions about depression by logging on through their
universities. The site has been adopted as a resource by over 120 colleges,
which can customize it with local information, and over 1.3 million students
have logged on with their college ID’s. "It’s a very solid Web
site that raises awareness of suicide, de-stigmatizes mental illness and
encourages people to seek the help they need," said Paul Grayson, the director
of counseling services at New York University, which started using the service
nearly a year ago. The main component of the Web site is the
Self-E-Valuator, a self-screening program developed by Duke University Medical
Center that tests students to determine whether they are at risk for depression,
suicide and disorders like anorexia and drug dependence. Besides helping
students, the service compiles anonymous student data, offering administrators
an important window onto the mental health of its campus. The
site provides university users with links to local mental health services, a
catalog of information on prescription drugs and side effects, and access to Go
Ask Alice, a vast archive developed by Columbia University with hundreds of
responses to anonymously posted inquiries from college students worldwide. For
students concerned about their friends, there is a section that describes
warning signs for suicidal behavior and depression. Yet it is
hard to determine how effective the service is. The anonymity of the online
service can even play out as a negative. "There is no substitute for personal
interaction (个人互动才能解决)," said Dr. Lanny Berman, executive director of the
American Association of Suicidology, based in Washington.
Ulifeline would be the first to say that its service is no replacement for
an actual therapist. "The purpose is to find out if there are signs of
depression and then direct people to the right places," said Ron Gibori,
executive director of Ulifeline. Mrs. Satow, who is still
involved with Ulifeline, called it "a knowledge base" that might have prevented
the death of her son, Jed. "If Jed’s friends had known the signs of depression,
they might have seen something," she said. Mrs. Satow would probably agree that ______.
A.Jed’s friends can prevent her son’s death B.her son’s suicide is unavoidable C.Ulifeline is a worthwhile website D.depression is the final cause of suicides