Club hosts suicide prevention, more events Sept. 10 on campus

Sean Horgan/The Telescope

The Active Minds club hosted an event Sept. 9 that promoted suicide awareness.

The club set up its booth in front of the cafeteria where students could receive support and learn how to prevent suicide.

Tommey Mok, 28, Active Minds vice president, stressed the importance of the information that was being presented at the event.

“Everybody on this planet should go to this event because it helps you see the signs in other people. It helps you answer the common questions that you may not know when the situations come up.”

The club set up a table where student could trace their hand prints, and write messages to other students to assure them that they are not alone in their struggles.

Aaron Desuacido, 21, Active Minds president, who said he has struggled in the past with depression, explained that this event encouraged Palomar students to be more open and that the whole purpose of the Active Minds club is to create an environment where students could be open and discuss their issues.

“Our club is about promoting mental health and creating an environment where it’s okay to talk about these sorts of issues. So suicide is really important to me because this [suicide] is what happens when we don’t have clubs like this or when we don’t have people around to help people in that sort of way.”

He also added that Palomar just hired two psychiatrists, located at the Health Services Center, that student can consult with for free about problems that they are having.

Torrey Monez, 19, a student at Palomar College, talked about the struggle that depression had around some of his loved ones.

“As for affecting me, it has made me evaluate myself as well to try to help them,” Monez said “Really (I) just evaluate how I treat them and evaluate how others treat them in order to see where they’re coming from and their point of view.”

Desuacido and Mok also confirmed that on Sept. 10, Active Minds will also be holding a seminar where they will be answering more questions on suicide, and they will have guest speakers talk about their own struggles with suicide.

Everyone is invited to join the Active Minds Club at 11 a.m. in H-306 for a Student Panel and Video featuring “The Truth About Suicide” for Suicide Awareness Week, according to club members.