For Ono, the time to speak about mental health is now

Santa Ono, president of the University of Cincinnati, astonished a fund-raising audience and his 70,000-plus Twitter followers over the weekend by revealing that, in his youth, he twice tried to kill himself. In a week when UC remembers a student who died by suicide in 2014, Ono said he wanted to send the message that depression is treatable, and sufferers can move on with life.

In an interview with The Enquirer after his revelation, Ono, 53, said he recovered from depression and being suicidal, and he wanted to erase the stigma attached to the mental illnesses.

"Someone was there for me to help me work my way through that with medication and also seeing a professional to help me through very dark times in my life," Ono said. "There's light at the end of the tunnel. If you have the proper counseling and support, it's really possible for you to move past that and move back into functioning life."

A university official said Sunday that in the immediate aftermath of UC student Brogan Dulle’s May 2014 death, Ono was instrumental in finding the resources for UC to provide any student with five free sessions of mental health counseling.

“It’s a courageous revelation for him to put it out there,” said Dr. Phil Diller, who oversees the University Health Service in his role as chairman of UC’s department of family and community medicine. “He’s using his office to really communicate this point: that people who are highly successful in their lives have issues with mental health as well. This is a very courageous thing to do.”

College students are particularly vulnerable to depression and suicide, Diller said. The most recent data shows that 174 Ohioans between 15 and 24 died in 2012 by suicide. More than 100,000 college students nationwide attempted suicide in 2012.

Saturday night, Ono attended an Indian Hill fundraiser for a group called 1N5, named for the statistic that one in five people will suffer from mental illness; the group is focused on helping teenagers. At that event, Ono told about 200 people that, when he was 14, he locked himself in his bedroom and tried to overdose on cold medication and beer. He attempted suicide again in his late 20s.

The Indian Hill event raised more than $115,000, according to organizers.

After the event, Ono took to social media. Ono told his more than 70,000 followers on Twitter about his suicide attempts. He later told The Enquirer: "Speaking at the event, I reached a couple hundred people and I felt that if I really wanted to break the silence, the right thing to do was to take advantage of the fact that I communicate with a lot of people over Twitter and social media. I wanted to get that message out to a broader audience."

Diller said Sunday that Ono’s revelation did not surprise him. More than a year ago, Ono met with Diller and other mental health care providers at UC following Dulle’s death. The 21-year-old UC student went missing May 18, 2014, and a massive search ended eight days later when his body was found in the basement of the building next door to Dulle’s apartment. He had hanged himself.

Dulle’s mother, Beth, of Cincinnati, said of Ono’s statement: "It's amazing that he was willing to share that to help other people. It's not easy for people to talk about things like that."

She said Ono has become a great friend of her family since he helped with the search for her son. She said he has supported their efforts to honor her son with the “8 Days of Greatness” campaign, a movement of kindness and generosity.

“He’s an amazing person,” she said. “For him, such a public person, to come out. I think it has to give a lot of people courage to open a dialogue. It’s hard to ask for help.”

Diller said, at the meeting after Dulle’s death with the mental health care providers, Ono confided about his own suicide attempts and struggle with depression. “You could tell that (Dulle’s death) really touched him, and he really wanted to do more. It was, 'what can I do to help?' He was very open about trying to see what he could do to make a difference.”

The result, Diller said, was that Ono was instrumental in arranging for University Health Services to provide more mental health services, a key request of the UC student government. Students now can have the five free counseling sessions. If they need more help, Diller said, they can be referred to other resources, and, “we take all the insurances there.”

Dr. Charles W. Collins, a UC Health physician and executive vice chairman of the UC College of Medicine’s department of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, saw the Ono statements pop up Saturday night on Facebook.

“I thought, ‘Wow, this is an important revelation,’ because he is at the top of his game as a person and as a great individual, and he admits this, which can be quite helpful to people,” Collins said. “It has a powerful effect because it brings it out of the darkness. So many people have depression and have no one to really discuss it.”

Collins said Ono can counteract the misimpression that people harbor about depression “that it’s a weakness, and to have such a powerful figure who clearly is not weak talk about something that happened to him and something that he clearly overcame, that can help make people seek treatment earlier.”

Ono said he did research into mental illness during his time at Emory University under his mentor, Earl Lewis, now president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. They focused on the high suicide rates among Korean students who felt extreme shame in failure. Since then, Ono said, he's been passionate about suicide prevention.

"Our students really are an inspiration to me," he said. "The millennial students are much more empathetic toward each other. Many of them have seen someone commit suicide. People are much more aware of what's happening, and that's a good thing. It's motivating them to do something about it. That's motivating them to demand adults and leaders within organizations to do something about it."

Ono is the son of a noted mathematician who emigrated from Japan after World War II and held research posts in Princeton, New Jersey, and at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Ono, an accomplished cellist as well as a college administrator, became UC president in 2012.

"For the last 25 years, I've been symptom-free," Ono told The Enquirer. "A big part of the balance in my life is that I have a loving family, and they're there for me even though I have a stressful life.” Speaking about his own dark periods "will be an encouragement to other people who are going through difficult times."

When he was younger, Ono said, he would have been "petrified" to tell his story. "Now I'm speaking from a much stronger station in life, and it's important for me and others to speak about this to encourage legislators to support more programs."

Twitter responded warmly to Ono’s revelations. Many people thanked him for speaking out.

"As a staff member at UC, I'm so thankful you said this. Proud of your leadership and vulnerability. Our students need to see this," Alex Fields wrote.

"Honesty like this from a man who has seen so much success and is loved by so many is incredibly inspiring," Mike Hawke wrote.

Resources for mental health services

University of Cincinnati Counseling & Psychological Services: Provides counseling, outreach programs, and related services for UC students and those concerned about their welfare. We help students address and resolve personal issues so that they can make the most of their educational opportunities at the University. www.uc.edu/counseling.html 24-hour consultation and crisis helpline 513-556-0648

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: A 24-hour, toll-free, confidential suicide prevention hotline available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. 1-800-273-8255, www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Crisis Text Line: a not-for-profit organization that provides support to people through text. Text START to 741-741, www.crisistextline.org

Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board: Provides mental health assessments, medication management, crisis intervention and makes connections to mental health professionals. MHAP 24-hour hotline 513-558-8888, www.mentalhealthaccesspoint.org

Lindner Center of HOPE: Provides patient-centered, scientifically-advanced care for individuals suffering from mental illness. 513-536-HOPE, lindnercenterofhope.org

Active Minds: A UC student-run organization focused on decreasing mental health stigma on campus. orgsync.com/login/university-of-cincinnati