Personal Tutees and Suicide

I just heard that one of my friends personal tutees committed suicide. The worst fear of everyone personal tutor came through in this case. I have decided to track all my personal tutees who are AWOL and write to them tomorrow. This is partly an exercise in ass-covering, partly in assuaging guilt in advance and partly out of concern for my students. But, one thing we have to keep in mind that we have too little influence or involvement in these students' lives. Yes, shows of concern and kindness can help a mildly depressed student feel better. But, its not going to do much for a moderately or severely depressed student. We are not trained counsellors, and the most we can do to a distressed student who approaches us  is direct them towards someone else. We are the school's cynical attempt to show students that they care. But, all we can do is show compassion in such cases. And compassion is great, but I'm guessing it cannot help prevent suicide. Our students have whole lives outside the ambit of their university classrooms. Our students are enigmas to us. Our contact with them is minimal in terms of time and impact. Parents may lash out to us to assuage their own guilt, but that doesn't make us guilty.