WE FIGHT

TO END STUDENT SUICIDE.

Elis for Rachael formed in the wake of Rachael Shaw Rosenbaum's (Yale College 2024) death by suicide in March 2021. We are alumni, family members, and friends, class years ranging from the 1960s to 2020s. Our goal is to work alongside current students for long-overdue change to Yale's policies towards students with mental illness.

YALE ALUMNI, FRIENDS, & FAMILY FOR

MENTAL HEALTH REFORM

At Yale, students have been begging for common-sense reform of mental health policies for decades. Harsh and opaque withdrawal and reinstatement policies have made students afraid to seek help, sometimes with lethal consequences.

Elis for Rachael is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in the wake of the passing of Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum (Yale College 2024) in March 2021. We are alumni, family members, and friends, with class years ranging from the 1960s to the 2020s. Our mission is to push Yale to support, rather than punish, students when they are ill.

Our work has been featured in the The Washington Post, NPR, PBS, CNN, and the Yale Daily News, and we've been mentioned in The New York Times. We've published op-eds in The Boston Globe and Yale Alumni Magazine. And we're here to stay until Yale makes this right.

Student reactions to Yale's recent policy updates:

"Honestly, getting emotional. This is going to help so many students, today and forever. Monumental."

"THANK YOU SO MUCH to Elis for Rachael. You all have just saved so many lives."

"It goes so much further than hollow word changes and minor adjustments they've made in the past. Particularly getting rid of 'being constructively occupied' and instead saying to focus on your health, which should have always have been the goal of a medical leave instead of jumping through hoops. I am hopeful this has massive positive ripples in the lives of current Yalies and those on medical leave. Thank you."

TO YALE STUDENTS:

If you are struggling with your mental health, or if you have ideas on how Yale might better support you, we are here to help. We are not clinicians. We are Yale alumni who have fought our own similar battles. Since our group’s inception in April 2021, we’ve spoken to many students and alumni who experienced mental health challenges, including crises, while at Yale. Hearing from so many of you has deepened our understanding of how to advocate for the right changes to Yale's mental health policies.

In April 2025, at the Mind Over Matter fair on Yale's campus, we officially launched our Student Handbook for Navigating Your Leave of Absence and Disability Accommodations at Yale. If you think this would be of use to you or someone you know, please view the manual on our website here, download it, print it, distribute it, and make the best use of it.

We are here if you need informal advice, words of encouragement, or just someone to listen. We also have a fund to assist students who are taking mental health related time away, to cover emergency needs for housing, food, transportation, therapy, or whatever else is critical. As of Spring 2023 we have two surveys: A 60 second survey on mental health wait times and a more in-depth survey about mental resources health at Yale. Both of these are critical to our ongoing advocacy. Please keep connecting with us; fighting for all of you is our mission.