Destigmatizing mental health treatment to fight rising suicides among black youth
Monday, October 21, 2019
October 21, 2019 - From TheWeeklyChallenger.com
Suicides among black youth have reached near epidemic proportions nationally, and now experts are sounding the alarm.
Nationally, suicides among black females ages 13 to 19 have doubled, with some studies stating that suicide rates from 2001 to 2017 among black girls rose as much as 182 percent. The rate of suicide among young black males has risen 60 percent.
Among children ages 5 to 12, black males are committing suicide at higher rates than any other racial or ethnic group. Statistically, suicide numbers for black youth are higher than any racial group except for teens in native/indigenous populations, who have the highest rate nationwide.
A recent study by James Price, professor emeritus of health education and public health at the University of Toledo in Ohio, reported that black teens also tend to use the deadliest methods for ending their lives – firearms and strangulation.
“There are far more African-American adolescents attempting suicide than has been recognized in the past, and their attempts are starting to be much more lethal,” Price stated. “They’re using the most lethal form of attempting suicide.”
In 2018, Pinellas County ranked among Florida’s five highest rates of suicide in the child to 21 age bracket – and suicides among black youth are clearly seen among that number.
In a recent news article, St. Pete’s Imam Askia Muhammad Aquil spoke of the memory of a teen suicide at Believers’ Mosque: “He was a talented teenager who was despondent over a relationship,” he shared. “I was close to the family and close to the young man. I was aware of the emotional difficulties he was experiencing.”
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