Suicide is complex and influenced by a series of risk factors, including untreated mental illness, prolonged stress, isolation and access to deadly means such as firearms and medicines. The new report does not immerse itself in the potential causes of the improvement of adolescents in recent years. But one of the reasons could be that more teenagers open up to others on their suicidal thoughts, explains Harkavy-Friedman. She highlighted a suicide prevention program managed by her organization called Talk Saves Lives, which educates people on the warning signs of suicide.
“Do not keep it inside and the simple fact of sharing with someone you have trouble can be useful,” she says.
In addition, she adds, more teenagers have sought help and found it.
“More and more children are connecting to treatment. And these treatments are specific to the prevention of suicide and suicide. ”
The report also revealed that the share of adolescents with an episode of major depression in the past year has dropped during this period – from 21% to 15%. But only about 60% of adolescents with a recent episode of depression received treatment.
And 2.6 million adolescents still had suicide thoughts in 2024, notes Hannah Wesolowski, Defense Head of the National Alliance On Mental Dusting.
“It is 1 in 10 children, which is still far too high in this country,” she adds. “So we are making progress, but we are not progressing enough quickly.”
The report also revealed that 700,000 teenagers had tried to commit suicide in the past year.
Wesolowski notes that access to mental health care remains difficult for Americans, partly due to the high costs of the pocket, a shortage of mental health care providers and a lack of culturally competent care for different racial and ethnic groups.
According to the new report, although there has been a slight increase in the number of adults receiving mental health treatment, almost half of adults with mental illness had trouble accessing treatment.
Disappearance data
Wesolowski notes something that is missing in the new report compared to previous years.
“This report does not break the prevalence or treatment rates by race or ethnic, which it has in the past,” she says.
“The 2023 report, as in previous years, provided breaks of breed and ethnicity,” wrote Kff researcher Heather Saunders in an email.
“The deletion of these data limits our ability to follow behavioral health trends and any difference in access to care,” she noted.
Saunders and his colleagues have used this data in the past to understand the differences in the prevalence of mental illness and serious mental illness in different racial and ethnic groups.
Investigation reports for past years, for example, were essential to identify the recent increase in suicide rates among black young people, explains Wesolowski.
“Do we make progress about it?” she said. “Without these prevalence data and by really looking at the data by demography, we may not spend our resources in the right way.”
Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Social Services, told NPR in an e-mail that demographic data including the race and ethnicity will be published in a future report.
Suicide remains one of the main causes of death in the United States, Wesolowski notes. As the new report notes, Suicide made more than 49,000 lives in 2023.
“We put a lot of money in suicide and mental health prevention services. But the need is so great that we know that we have to do more, “explains Wesolowski,” that this is not enough. “
If you or someone you know with suicide thoughts, you can compose or send an SMS 988 and be connected to help you.
