The increasing number of suicides nationally among the young and a rise in numbers of attempted suicides punctuate disturbing trends that society needs to address.
Not enough mental health assessment and treatment, too much bullying, and the ever-present and often troublesome social media are among the factors experts cite that contribute to suicides.
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the rate of suicides among people ages 10 to 24 rose from 2007 to 2017. In 2007, 6.8 deaths per 100,000 people were reported in that age range, but it jumped to 10.6 deaths per 100,000 in 2017.
And the amount of suicides rose faster from 2013 to 2017 — an average increase of 7 percent per year — compared with 3 percent from 2007 to 2013.
A separate analysis by the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University shows an upward tick in suicide attempts among youths over the same period, especially among black youths. Black youths aged 5 to 11 years have experienced an increase in the rate of suicide deaths, the study found. Among black children ages 5 to 12 years, the suicide rate was twice that of their white counterparts.
Lisa Horowitz, a pediatric psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health, said the CDC report should be seen as a call to action. A similar uptick in deaths among our nation’s youth, such as a disease or infection, would generate a huge outcry. Instead, suicide among young people is a public health crisis that many in the public don’t even know about.
Why is this happening? Some point to the decline in traditional structures such as religious practice, others to the bullying and shaming that takes place on social media. A unifying factor is that youths too often occupy a world that adults don’t know about and don’t try hard enough to penetrate.
Some blame is attributed to media that may tend to glorify, or at least normalize, suicide. The start of the 2017 Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, about a teen girl’s reasons for her suicide that is explained through an audio diary, matched with an unprojected increase in the national statistic of 195 suicides, the same year.
Candy Phillips, a volunteer with the Lucas County Suicide Prevention Coalition and the local contact for International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day on Nov. 23, attributes the rise of teen suicide to two factors. Children suffering from mental illness who do not know how to seek help and bullying on social media. Ms. Phillips said parents owe it to their children to be more aggressive in how they oversee and restrict their children’s use of social media.
Programs and hotlines are in place, including the national Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255, and Ohio’s Crisis Text Line, reached by texting 4HOPE to 741741.
People need to become more aware of the warning signs of suicide and then be better prepared to respond. Until they do, this public health crisis is likely to get worse. And that is unacceptable.
First Published November 6, 2019, 5:00 a.m.
