Before June 8, 2002, Jan Ulrich knew exactly what to teach her children.

“I knew to teach my children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol,” she said. “I knew to teach them to look both ways before crossing the street, but I didn’t think to teach them about suicide and depression.”

So, when her son Nathan Eisert packed for his first year at Western, she didn’t worry about him.

Eisert was another sophomore student taking summer courses to get ahead with his class requirements.

He lived in Pearce-Ford Tower. He had a girlfriend and a spot on the basketball team. He was a normal student, who had a great life on the surface. But underneath he was struggling with an ankle injury that caused him to lose his spot on the basketball team.

He made the dean’s list a semester before, but his grades dropped when he could no longer play for the team. The pain caused him to sit on the sidelines to keep his ankle from swelling.

After his classes were done for the week and he was alone in his dorm room, Eisert shot himself.

Ulrich, who now works as a youth suicide prevention marketing specialist for the Kentucky Department for Mental Health, said she never saw it coming.

Ulrich said the moment she found out her son had died, she went into shock. Once she came to, her father handed her brochures about suicide prevention, asking her to look them over.

She learned a shocking statistic- that suicide was the second leading cause of death among 15-34-year-olds in Kentucky. She stopped working as a video producer to become an advocate on suicide prevention.

She said that the information about clues that a child is suffering from depression was somewhat hidden from her and she didn’t want other parents to be sheltered from the precautions that they can take.

Ulrich and others involved in the Kentucky Suicide Prevention group have collaborated ideas to release information that could help families dealing with depression or suicide. They recently started the “Let’s Talk” video that explains others’ stories and experiences with depression or suicide attempts.

They conducted a survey of Kentucky residents and found that 40 percent knew someone who committed suicide. Of those surveyed, 65 percent knew someone who had attempted suicide, Ulrich said.

“There is such a stigma surrounding families that can’t deal with a family member’s death by suicide,” she said. “We wanted to help those family members how to deal with that and notice the signs and symptoms of depression.”

Every 17 minutes someone commits suicide in Kentucky, Ulrich said.

Brian Van Brunt, Counseling and Testing Center director, said that they have seen 450 students in the counseling center for depression- or suicide-related reasons and 40 percent of them had experienced suicidal thoughts. Fifteen were hospitalized voluntarily and only one was forced to stay in the hospital for examinations.

“Everyone can relate to feeling sad,” Van Brunt said. “But for those that have depression, that sadness continues and never stops.”

Van Brunt said that the counseling center wants to have more prevention outreach groups on campus for students who feel overwhelmed and have depression or anxiety. The groups haven’t had the attendance needed to keep them going.

Clifford “Skip” Schulte, Belleview resident and Western alumnus, said that he encourages those who suffer from depression to join groups for help. Shulte suffers from depression and has attempted suicide. He said that outreach groups helped him through his toughest battles. They offer those who suffer from depression an outlet to express their problems.

“People with depression have a broken brain,” he said. “People break arms and they break legs. They have broken cells, which is cancer. People with depression have a break-up in chemicals which causes an imbalance.”

Schulte said that his depression lasts from four to 10 months.

“I lay in bed and toss and turn,” he said. “I don’t even turn on the TV or radio because I have no interest in doing anything. I just get up to barely eat.”

Schulte said that most depression episodes occur when there are several losses in a person’s life. He and his serious girlfriend broke up and his two best friends moved away. He said these things caused his depression.

Van Brunt said that many college students experience depression because of the change of atmosphere or the use of substances that were not prevalent before college.

The American College Health Association found that 42 percent of college students felt depressed in 2006 and Van Brunt said it could be higher.

Ulrich has taken her son’s death as a lesson for other young people who experience depression.

“Nathan’s gone, and out of that, I can turn this into something good,” she said. “His life is not over because his story will live on and inspire others to not give up.”

Reach Jill Erwin at diversions@chherald.com.