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As Youth Face Mental Health Crisis, Barriers to Access Remain

AUG. 12, 2024

By Brian Dick

Warning: This blog posts contains a discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know are suicidal or in crisis, contact the National Suicide Hotline at 988 or dial 911 if it is an emergency.

Preteens, adolescents, and young adults continue to face a significant mental health crisis. According to a study published last month in JAMA Network Open (published by the American Medical Association), while suicides among preteens (aged 8-12) moderately declined from 2001 to 2007, from 2008 to 2022 they increased at an annual rate of 9 percent. Thus, while 482 preteens completed suicide in the former period, this figure was 1,759 in the latter.

Figure: Trends in Suicide Rates for Youth Aged 8-12 Years in US From 2001-2022. Source: JAMA Network Open.

In a separate research article published in the same issue of JAMA Network Open, researchers found evidence that youth in need of mental health services are not receiving them. The study explored suicides completed by youth (ages 10 to 24) between 2010 to 2021 and found that in 60 percent of the cases the youth had no prior mental health diagnosis. Even in instances where youth engaged in non-suicidal self-injury or had a previous suicide attempt, predictors of suicide among adolescents, as many as 25 percent had received no mental health diagnosis. This indicates that they were not connected to or were otherwise unable to access mental health services. These rates were even higher among females and minorities. 

The study also highlighted the means used to complete suicide, where nearly half involve the use of firearms (with the firearm belonging to a family member three quarters of the time). Firearms are much more lethal than other means, such as poisoning or suffocation. Since teens spend less than 5 minutes between making the decision and attempting suicide, it is important to limit youth access to firearms, such as by ensuring that guns in the house are unloaded, locked, and stored separately from ammunition. However, of the 23 million households in the United States with both children and a gun in the home, nearly 5 million leave the gun loaded and unlocked.

According to the latest survey by SAMHSA in 2023, 856,000 adolescents in the United States attempted suicide, 1.5 million made a suicide plan, and 3.2 million had serious thoughts of suicide. These figures were similar to previous years.

ADDITIONAL READING 

Most young people who die by suicide in the US do not have previous mental health diagnoses, study suggests 

Nearly a third of adolescents getting mental health treatment, federal survey finds 

When Homosexuality Stopped Being a Mental Disorder in the DSM