Kaiser Health News (8/23, Pattani) reports, “Interviews with a dozen suicide researchers, data collected from states across the country and a review of decades of research revealed that suicide is a growing crisis for communities of color – one that plagued them well before the” COVID-19 pandemic “and has only been exacerbated since.” In fact, “research shows Black kids younger than 13 die by suicide at nearly twice the rate of white kids and, over time, their suicide rates have grown even as rates have decreased for white children.” Among adolescents and “young adults, suicide deaths have increased more than 45% for Black Americans and about 40% for Asian Americans in the seven years ending in 2019.” The pandemic has only “intensified” societal “hardships among communities of color, with disproportionate numbers of lost loved ones, lost jobs and lost housing.” Investigators “say the promise of a good future is often overlooked in suicide prevention, perhaps because achieving it” does require “economic and social growth and breaking systemic barriers.”
Related Links:
— “Pandemic Unveils Growing Suicide Crisis for Communities of Color “Aneri Pattani, aiser Health News, August 23, 2021