#Raskin suicide professional

We have the greatest chance of success in helping the students if we all work together to help provide them with the tools necessary to be resilient and successful in life, both personally and professionally.” “And it is a community health problem that can be best addressed from a community perspective. So, whether a student is male, female, an athlete, a first-generation, a person of color, LGBTQ, extrovert, or introvert-all of our students are impacted one way or another by the crisis. Raskin added: “What I would say to other parents about mental health and wellness is that it’s an issue that touches everybody in some way. “I realized I had to do something to prevent such a tragedy from happening in another family.” “My younger brother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 16 and died by suicide in his 40s a few weeks after Elliot had enrolled at Pitzer College,” Sinaee said. Personally, she has suffered the loss of a loved one. As a doctor, depression and anxiety are the most common reasons she sees patients in the office.

#Raskin suicide professional

Sinaee’s interest in creating a mental health program at Pitzer stems from both a professional and a personal point of view. In December 2021, they pledged an additional $100,000 to kickstart the Strive2Thrive campaign with the intent of raising an additional $400,000 from those who share their concerns and want to help. In partnership with the Pitzer administration, they helped establish the Strive2Thrive program in 2019 with a gift of $75,000 to better support the critical mental health needs of Pitzer students.

The school carried the ball in terms of devoting the resources and the time and the staff to develop a program.” “To our great satisfaction, the vice president of student affairs and all of Pitzer were very receptive. “We didn’t know if we were going to be blown off or if the administration was going to be receptive,” said Raskin.

“When I put that phone down, I told Ramesh we had to do something.”Īfter doing research, Raskin and Sinaee reached out to Pitzer with an offer to help seed a program to address mental health issues. “I’ll never forget Elliot calling me and hearing the pain in his voice as he told me,” said Raskin. Then they learned of three young men at the other Claremont Colleges taking their own lives during the 2018–19 academic year. They had read a study from the Steinberg Institute based in Sacramento that documented suicide as the second leading cause of death for college students. So, when their son entered Pitzer, Raskin and Sinaee were determined to help alleviate the ongoing crisis. Sinaee is a practicing physician specializing in internal medicine with the Sutter Medical Group in Sacramento. Raskin is a former government attorney with the California State Office of the Attorney General, where he supervised the unit that went after corporate fraud. Both Raskin and Sinaee are active citizens and problem solvers.