The DBSA team offers our heartfelt condolences to Representative Jamie Raskin and his family, who lost their 25-year-old son, Tommy Raskin, to depression on New Year’s Eve.
The family’s statement noted: “On the last hellish brutal day of that godawful miserable year of 2020,” their statement said, “when hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of people all over the world died alone in bed in the darkness from an invisible killer disease ravaging their bodies and minds, we also lost our dear, dear, beloved son, Hannah and Tabitha’s beloved irreplaceable brother, a radiant light in this broken world.”
Their openness about the challenges their son faced living with depression over the past year reminds us again about the secondary pandemic we face: The number of Americans living with depression, anxiety, and mood disorders has risen to a crisis point during the past year.
Alongside this, access to care, increased and prolonged isolation, along with the stress of unemployment, health concerns, managing altered school and work environments, and coping through grief while separated from loved ones has brought too many families to a breaking point.
We will continue to impress upon our lawmakers at all levels of government the urgency to reinstate and increase desperately needed funding for mental healthcare. We appreciate the support of our DBSA community, and thank you as you stand with us in this critical call.
To the Raskin family, we stand with you during this heartbreaking time.
