Youth suicide rate is on the rise
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that around one in five adolescents between the ages of 12 to 17 report that they frequently experience feelings of anxiety and depression.
The CDC’s Teen National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), conducted over 18 months during 2021 and 2022, also shows that those rates are significantly higher for females in this age group, who are approximately two-and-a-half times more likely to report symptoms of anxiety and depression than are their male counterparts. And LGBTQ+ teens report anxiety and depression at more than three times the rate of non-LGBTQ+ teenagers.
Although the survey doesn’t distinguish between racial and ethnic identities, other studies conducted during the same period did pay attention to potential differences along such lines with interesting results.
KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation), an independent nonprofit organization that specializes in health policy and research that analyzed the NHIS survey, notes that recent statistics from both SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) regarding anxiety and depression in American teenagers “found no significant differences among racial and ethnic groups.”
Dr. BraVada Garrett-Akinsanya, a licensed clinical psychologist, licensed clinical social worker, and the co-founder and executive director of the African American Child Wellness Institute, believes that there is clear evidence as to why.
“During Covid, Black kids and white kids were looking very similar in terms of the amount of distress they were experiencing,” Garrett-Akinsanya explains. “It wasn’t that Black kids had any less anxiety than they did previously; it’s that white kids were having more and more.”
This assessment is further borne out in a statewide report from the Minnesota Department of Education. The Minnesota Student Survey from 2022 shows that 47 percent of white ninth graders in the state reported “feeling down, depressed or hopeless” at least at some point during the past two weeks, compared to 46 percent of Black ninth graders. Approximately 10 percent of both Black and white first-year high school students reported feeling that way almost every day over those two weeks.
Still, despite these similarities, Garrett-Akinsanya agrees with KFF in its analysis, which all told states that “mental health conditions among adolescents of color may be underreported as a result of underdiagnosis, gaps in culturally sensitive mental health care, structural barriers, and stigma associated with accessing care.
“Kids of color, and in particular Black children, still tend to have it worst when it comes to getting care,” notes Garrett-Akinsanya.
That is another critical finding in survey after survey around the issue of mental health and wellness support. Many adolescents are accessing care. Yet far too many are not, whether it’s an issue of affordability, not knowing where to turn, or, again, that dreaded stigma around the topic of mental health.
“Stigma, that’s something that’s hard to answer, to overcome,” Garrett-Akinsanya says, “The treatment gap in Black communities is, in part, supported by a history of distrust, mistrust. And those feelings are well-founded.”
Concerning potential strategies and solutions, Garrett-Akinsanya speaks to the need for more health practitioners of color, as BIPOC youth are often less likely to find a provider that understands them, their cultural norms, and their needs.
She further stresses the importance of focusing on the concept of wellness, of treating the whole person, and emphasizing the Bantu philosophy of Ubuntu, which translates as “I am, because we are.”
“The community around us helps to determine whether or not we are healthy,” she adds. “Some practitioners talk about individuating, taking care of ourselves. That is certainly important. But we have to take care of others too. I am not well if those around me aren’t well.”
And the need to support young people in this way is perhaps greater than ever. “We tend to minimize the emotional distress of adolescents,” observes Garrett-Akinsanya. “It’s often attributed to puberty.”
However, some of the social and cultural pressures that teens face today are not the same as previous generations.
“Most of us didn’t go to school [in times where we] had to participate in ‘active shooter’ training,” she continues. “School was considered a safe space. We didn’t walk into class worried we might not make it home.”
That kind of emotional weight, combined with the uptick in hatred, mounting political instability, the influence of social media, and other external factors, make it much more difficult for youth to navigate and manage the natural social changes that accompany them into the teen years.
This is a matter of life and death. A 2023 CDC study shows that suicide rates among Americans between the ages of 10 to 24 have risen by more than 60 percent since 2007. The “New England Journal of Medicine” reports that in 2022, an average of 22 adolescents died of a drug overdose each week.
There is some good news, according to Garrett-Akinsanya, who says it is becoming increasingly common for mental health professionals to be welcomed directly into schools, establishing School-linked Mental Health Services. And there are other available resources as well.
If you need mental health support call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. The Lifeline is free and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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