Friendship and Attempted Suicide

To take a break from my massive amounts of homework I figured I should go back and recap a bit of my life since school has started.  I was completely happy and ready for the new year, without worrying about anything to cause me any distraction.  Then i get a voice mail at the end of the first week, from my friend, except he wasn't calling from his number, but instead from a mental institution.  He didn't explain why, but only said that he missed talking and wanted me to call him back. I freaked out. I called another friend (of whom he said he was planning on calling after) to figure out what had happened. She told me he had attempted suicide. I lost it, and cried for the next 2 days straight. What made it worse was the fact that the extensive amounts of homework i got prevented me from calling him until that following Wednesday.  That conversation resulted in more tears... lots more.
I would go into details, but considering this is a public website and for his sake I would like to keep this all private, I cant tell you any more then that.  Its been a couple weeks since then, but it still bothers me immensely and every time I watch something that mentions suicide I can't help but think about what would happen if he would try again, but this time he would actually succeed.  I wouldn't be able to bear losing one of my closest friends.

I'm trying everything I can to help, as well as trying to talk to him as often as I possibly can, but i don't think its getting through. He goes to a different school, and some of his friends aren't as caring as he needs them to be right now. Especially since his parents are very conservative and not so accepting, he needs to have comfort in other places.
I'm trying to help as best as I can, but as I've never been through something like this before... I'm not sure what else I can do. If anyone out there can provide some sort of guidance for me or is able to pray for my friend (only if you feel comfortable with it of course), that would be much appreciated.
Thank you, and I'll try to talk about something geared more towards you guys next time. I just needed to vent a little.