A nurse's death raises the alarm about the profession's mental health crisis

Close friends Joshua Paredes, Michael Walujo and John LeBlanc are working together to set up a crisis help line for nurses following the suicide of their friend Michael Odell in January.

On the morning of January 18, Joshua Paredes came home to an empty apartment. His roommate and good friend Michael Odell wasn’t there, but there was a giant bag of Skittles, Odell’s favorite snack, on the dog bed.

Paredes, who has two dogs, texted his friend. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, how many Skittles were in here? Just so I know what’s going on with the dogs.'”

They were both working as nurses – Paredes at the University of California, San Francisco hospital and Odell at Stanford Health Care – and initially, Paredes didn’t think much of his friend’s absence, since he typically worked long shifts.