

To get help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If a crisis happens, staying in contact with them afterward or after being discharged from care can make a difference too.You can also help make a connection with a trusted individual like a family member, friend, spiritual advisor or mental health professional. Help them connect to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) and the Crisis Text Line number, which is 741741 in your phone, so it’s there when they need it.Be there for the person – listen carefully and learn what the individual is thinking and feeling.Keep the person safe by reducing their access to highly lethal items or places.She served in the Rosary Altar Society and was known as one of the three Golden Girls of the choir. Ask, “Are you thinking about killing yourself?” The website notes, “It’s not an easy question, but studies show that asking at-risk individuals if they are suicidal does not increase suicides or suicidal thoughts.” Anns Catholic Parish of San Perlita, Texas.Previous research had already shown that last year, the proportion of mental health-related emergency department visits among adolescents ages 12 to 17 increased 31% compared with the year prior in 2019, according to the CDC.

More research is needed to determine whether there are any differences in the data by race or ethnicity – and whether similar findings would emerge among suspected suicide attempts with less severe injuries that were not reported to emergency departments. “However, the findings from this study suggest more severe distress among young females than has been identified in previous reports during the pandemic, reinforcing the need for increased attention to, and prevention for, this population.”Īlso, the researchers noted that the data were just on emergency department visits and do not mean suicide deaths have increased. “Self-reported suicide attempts are consistently higher among adolescent females than among males, and research before the COVID-19 pandemic indicated that young females had both higher and increasing rates of ED visits for suicide attempts compared with males,” the researchers wrote.

Researchers said the new report expands on previous work that showed increases in emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts earlier in the pandemic, and suggests those trends persisted among young people. The increases began after emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts previously appeared to decrease in spring 2020 compared with 2019, according to the study. The study found that among boys ages 12 to 17, emergency visits for suspected suicide attempts increased 3.7%. Then this year, during February 21 to March 20, the mean weekly number of visits for suspected suicide attempts were 50.6% higher among girls ages 12 to 17 than they were during the same time period in 2019. The study, published on Friday by the CDC, found that in May 2020, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts started to increase among adolescents ages 12 to 17, especially girls. Teen stress has been heightened by a year of pandemic.
