Mental health issues and suicide were often referred to as “a white person’s issue” which is part and parcel why our community has never galvanized around fighting this issue.
Working on our own issues personally is not working, and in turn Black children are paying the ultimate price with their own lives. Mental health can no longer be swept under the rug as a taboo subject among the Black community. If you see something you must begin to say something. The normal practice of Facebook posts becoming cries for help have become the warning sign of what is to come if we don’t begin to take action on this subject. It’s a learned experience to not deal with mental health that we perpetuate as a part of our culture one where we never learn to process pain over the “grit and bear it method” which we have carried over from generation to generation. I’ve had several friends who have made suicide attempts, and last year lost a friend to that battle. Suicidal thoughts have come across my mind when I was at my lowest. I like many others have personal stories of how suicide has affected my life. Suicide and mental health are still issues that many of us remain silent on. It is estimated that nearly one-third (29 percent) of LGB youth had attempted suicide at least once in the prior year compared to 6 percent of heterosexual youth. LGBTQ students often deal with the lack of safe spaces, bullying, and violence at a much higher rate than their hetero counterparts. The LGBTQ community is another that is being affected by suicide and mental health issues. Researchers using this data have concluded that part of this rise is due to Black children “likely to be exposed to violence and traumatic stress, and that black children are more likely to experience an early onset of puberty, which can increase the risk of depression and impulsive aggression.” Although white people have the highest suicide rates in the country, the numbers around Black boys age 5-11 have doubled over the past 20 years. Let’s face it, Black folk are killing themselves and the rate of suicides are only increasing across many demographics.Īccording to the CDC, suicide is now the third-leading cause of death for Blacks ages 15-24.
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The stigma around seeking professional help continues to prevent our community from assessing the pressures of society from childhood, with a pathology that forces many of us to accept pain and struggle as a part of our heritage. Lindsey added that while “completed suicides are still highest among white youth, the gap is narrowing at a fast pace when you look at the fact that over the last decade suicide gaps have raised by 60 percent for black adolescent boys and over 100 percent for black adolescent females.Many Black Americans never seek help to deal with mental health, opting for more traditional methods with the use of a religious leader at the church to work through problems. “The signs of suicide in black youth are too often overlooked and not well understood,” Lindsey said, “and so we must have more research that helps in finding answers to this growing epidemic in the black community.” Lindsey, executive director of the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research, who led the working group that conducted the report and joined Coleman Watson on the conference call. The gap is narrowing between black and white youth, and we must get at the bottom of why,” said Dr. “The bottom line is this: Black youth suicide and suicidal behavior are rising, defying historic trends. Prohibit federal funds from being used for conversion therapy and prohibits the awarding of federal grants to states that continue to allow it. Increase funding for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to study mental health disparities in racial and ethnic minority groups Promote training of students, parents, teachers and other school staff members to identify and screen for signs of trauma, mental health disorders and risk of suicide
Increase the amount of research relating to the mental health of black youth and suicide through the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health, particularly by minority researchers
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