Pete Moye’
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The Cerritos College Active Minds Club hosted a Suicide Awareness Week event, which took place in the Falcon Square from 11:30-1:00 p.m. on Nov. 10.
The event provided information to Cerritos College students regarding suicide.
Students had the chance to purchase snacks and witness participant speakers of the club, including Congresswoman Grace F. Napolitano and representative of the 38th Congressional District and Cerritos College President, Dr. Linda Lacy.
The event also carried information concerning depression peer support and resources to mental health and illness.
Veterans Coordinator, Matthew Lorscheider, explained how after spending four years in the United States Marine Corps since 2000, hearing about many veterans becoming diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after their service in the army, is an effective way to inform students about mental illness.
“I think it’s an important event, I think there should be more discussion on this illness,” Lorscheider said.
He added, “There’s an 80 percent statistic of more combat veterans that end up committing suicide than soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
He also expressed his delight on Cerritos College educating students on depression and PTSD to people who suffer from a stigma about the disease.
“Many veterans will be coming back this December for the holiday and it’s good for us to greet them with open arms for putting their life on the line,” Lorscheider says.
Lorscheider also added that it’s good to provide veterans and other individuals going through depression and PTSD with available resources, which were not granted before.
“It’s good to know Cerritos College has an active veterans community on campus to show them we are not different from them and not crazy people running around campus with machine guns.” Lorscheider said.
Psychology major, Amanda Perez, explained how the Active Minds Club was working on setting up this event a couple of months before it was official.
“For the past month we were making posters and contacting outside places to provide Cerritos students with resources,” Perez said.
She acknowledged that the money collected from selling snacks at the event will be supplemented to the Active Minds Club in means of helping get rid of the stigma against mental disorders.
Perez said, “We are making a pretty good amount of money; we even have [other] people donating for this cause.”
Hector Elizalde, Military Liaison for Congresswoman Grace F. Napolitano, explained how Napolitano would be providing Cerritos students with resource information on depression awareness.
“It’s a two-fold participant event, our reach is to inform students as well in Washington D.C.” Elizalde explains, “our primary goal is to reach out to veterans returning from Iraq and inform them with services available for them which they may not be aware of.”
