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Family raises physician awareness of suicide through ‘Steph’s award’
Scholarship profile: Stephanie Dawn Barragy Memorial Scholarship
Family raises physician awareness of suicide through ‘Steph’s award’
Someone in the U.S. takes their own life every 11 minutes, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that suicide is the nation’s 11th leading cause of death, and that West Virginia has the 10th leading suicide mortality rate among all states.
But for Charles and Jean Cornell of Marlinton, W.Va., suicide isn’t a set of statistics. It’s a reality they have lived with since 2007, when their daughter, Stephanie, took her own life at the age of 37.
The Cornells established the Stephanie Dawn Barragy Memorial Scholarship in 2011, to honor Stephanie and raise suicide awareness among physicians who will be treating patients with mental illness. The scholarship is given annually to a graduating WVSOM student who has demonstrated compassion, empathy and insight in working with patients; who has proved that they pay attention to what is being said by patients as well as what is not being said; and who has demonstrated a willingness to provide community service.
The scholarship, which Charles refers to as “Steph’s award,” gives the Cornells an opportunity to address students during WVSOM’s Graduation Awards Ceremony and to stress the importance of compassionate care for those who may be struggling with thoughts of suicide. It also allows them to urge future physicians to play a role in removing the stigma associated with the word “suicide” itself.
“Steph committed suicide. We’re not afraid to say it. And if we, as the parents of a young lady who took her own life, can say it, then I don’t want physicians to be afraid to say it,” Charles explained.
At the 2023 event, as he does every year, Charles told the story of learning that his daughter was a victim of suicide.
“Fifteen and a half years ago — it seems like yesterday — we received the phone call that no parent ever wants to receive,” Charles said during the ceremony. “We’re here to ask for your help in getting the word ‘suicide’ out of the closet it has been in for so long. All we ask is that you help one person make the decision for life instead of death, and maybe there won’t be another dad or mom standing up here handing out an envelope in memory of their [child] who took their own life.”
Stephanie fought mental illness for decades, and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, Jean said.
“She was 14 when we first noticed it,” she said. “I thought she was going through a phase. She would go to the doctor and give them lip service, tell them exactly what they wanted to hear. In her mind, she didn’t have anything wrong with her. She wouldn’t take her medicine.”
Charles described Stephanie’s subsequent life as a series of “mountains and valleys.” She married, had children, separated — and as time went on, made several attempts to end her life. In 2007, just two months after being released from a hospital whose doctors said she was no longer a danger to herself, Stephanie made another attempt, this one successful.
Charles believes it’s important for physicians to understand that mental illness can leave patients unable to maintain control over their actions.
“There are people in the field of health care who say, ‘I’m happy to help those who want to help themselves, but if you smoke two packs of cigarettes a day and come in because you have lung cancer, what do you want me to do?’ And I’m sure there are doctors who think the same way about people who have tried to take their own life. But there are those who aren’t able to help themselves, and people who are entering health care need to know that,” he said.
For two years after Stephanie’s death, the Cornells participated in suicide walks and raised money for national prevention organizations. When they made the decision to focus their efforts more locally, Charles and Jean — who in the early 2000s had returned to West Virginia, not far from Cumberland, Md., where Jean was raised — wanted to share their philanthropy with a nearby osteopathic medical school. While living in Colorado, Jean had worked with osteopathic physicians as a medical technologist in a hospital, and both Jean and Charles grew up under the care of osteopathic physicians.
“We think the world of D.O.s,” Charles said. “As a little girl in the mountains of western Maryland, Jean and her family saw a D.O. In rural Missouri, there was a wonderful D.O. who was kind, considerate and made house calls. And when we raised our kids in Colorado, we made sure we saw D.O.s.”
Anna Jolliffe, D.O., of WVSOM’s Class of 2007, was the scholarship’s first recipient. Now a pediatric psychiatrist who practices in Pittsburgh, Pa., Jolliffe subsequently contributed to the scholarship fund herself. She said the recognition she received more than a decade ago is still meaningful to her today.
“I was honored to be the inaugural recipient of the Stephanie Dawn Barragy Memorial Scholarship,” Jolliffe said. “As someone who always aimed to work in a combined medical and behavioral health field, it was touching to be noted for taking the whole person — emotional and physical — into account. It gave me great confidence moving into my residency. Stephanie’s family was so gracious, and you could see how devoted they were to Stephanie and to helping support future compassionate providers. It was a privilege to be able to donate to the scholarship once I was in practice.”
Charles said that students often speak with him about Stephanie after the awards ceremony. But perhaps the most important feedback the couple receives comes in the form of continued donations to the fund.
“It’s the best decision we ever made,” Charles said. “People are helping immensely, and we’re thankful to the WVSOM Foundation for giving us a way to raise awareness. There’s no better group of people to talk to about this issue than new doctors.”
