Suicide rates among teens and youth increase

"I think it's an epidemic and I think it's a crisis," Grossman said.

Meanwhile, in New York, Sen. David Carlucci, chair of the Senate Committee on Mental Health, has scheduled a hearing in Albany on June 4, which will deal with suicide research, including data on youth.

"We need to determine how the state can now invest in prevention," Carlucci said. "So we have a real game plan for the next budget cycle."

In general, New York and New Jersey have lower suicide rates than the rest of the country, including young people. But health departments in both states report trends in young adolescents.

According to a report released by the New Jersey Department of Children and Family and the state Department of Health, 84 children aged 10 to 18 years of age committed suicide between 2013 and 2015.

And in New York, there were 235 suicide deaths between 2014 and 2016 among 10-to-19-year-olds and four deaths among 9-year-olds and under.

While research suggests a youth suicide crisis, Hall said the biggest crisis is the imbalance between the demand for care and the resources to provide it. "The availability of services has not yet reached the threshold of the current population," he said.

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This reflects the analysis of the youth suicide study published in the JAMA Pediatrics on April 8th.

"The findings suggest a critical need to increase community resources in mental health, [Emergency Department] physician readiness and post-emergency risk reduction initiatives to reduce the burden of suicide in children, "said the study.

Youth Suicide Studies

• On April 8th, JAMA Pediatrics published a study showing that teenage and adolescent suicide visits and suicide attempts doubled between 2007 and 2015.
• According to the study, about 43% of miners met by an emergency department for ideas or attempted suicide were under the age of 11, according to which researchers at the Montreal Children's Hospital of McGill University Health Center analyzed data from the CDC.
• According to a study published March 11 in Hospital Pediatrics, one third of young people aged 10 to 12 years had a positive risk screening for suicide in the emergency department. 7 percent of those who were there for physical concerns – not psychiatric -. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death for this age group.
• The suicide rate among black men aged 5 to 11 has doubled in the last generation, according to research by Dr. Michael A. Lindsey, executive director of the McSilver Institute for Policy and Research of poverty at New York University.
• The suicide rate among Latin American teenagers has doubled since 1999, and the suicide rate among Latin American teenagers is significantly higher than that of other groups, according to the New York Suicide Prevention Task Force, which released his first report on April 22.
• According to the Trevor project, lesbian, gay and bisexual youth report nearly five times more suicide attempts than heterosexual youth. For transgender people, the suicide attempt rate is 40%.
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death among children aged 10 to 18 in the United States, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

There is more than just a shortage of training, Grossman said. There is also a lack of recognition that children face different challenges than their parents.

"Stop saying" when we were kids, "Grossman said. "We are trying to use yesterday's solutions to today's problems."

A photo of Dianne Grossman and her daughter Mallory vacationing in North Carolina. Mallory committed suicide at the age of 12 after being constantly bullied by his classmates. (Photo: Danielle Parhizkaran / NorthJersey.com)

Children's mental health risk awareness can reduce stigma.

Parents are more likely to let young children talk about topics – such as feelings, fears, anxieties – that were once ignored or even taboo. Schools are more likely to teach mental health awareness and more likely to offer mental health services.

"Thirty years ago, schools did not think about mental health," Hall said. "Now, pediatricians are looking for her."

But, added Hall, susceptibility has also increased. And Hall agrees that this risk comes largely from the social media environment 24/7 and the total connectivity of young children.

Social media in itself is not bad, Thorpe said. However, young children do not have the social capacity of management to know how to balance this type of interactions, especially if they become hostile.

Kristine Pendy, Clinical Manager of Behavioral Health Services in New Bridge, said social media also provided access to information that younger children had never known existed.

"This type of instrument for a young person likely to have sensitivity is dynamite," Hall said.

Grossman said that some parents do not even realize that video games like Fortnite are also social media platforms, with player interactions being a major attraction, but sometimes constituting a significant risk of intimidation.

TO CLOSE

Dianne Grossman continues the Twaway Rockaway. school district after his daughter Mallory, 12, committed suicide last year.
Danielle Parhizkaran, North Jersey

Young children face other social challenges that they may not be ready to handle. For example, 11-year-olds in Grade 6 now begin college, Hall said.

Other periods of transition – divorce, remarriage, new siblings – can create emotional upheaval. "Families are struggling to be families these days," Hall said.

Resources

Need help or know someone who does it?

• Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The lifeline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Send via SMS HOME to 741741 free 24/7 in the United States.

New Bridge psychiatrists agree that it is shocking to hear about the growing number of younger children who are talking and trying to commit suicide.

But there is hope in statistics. Early detection means earlier treatment. "They can get medication or therapy, whatever their needs, to ward off hospitalization," Thorpe said.

There is also better quality of care, Thorpe said. "Every day, the treatment improves."

And there's moreknowledge about youth suicide in the entire medical community. Updated 2/18 of the guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended for the first time universal screening for depression in 12-year-old adolescents. The guidelines also outline the discussion of a safety plan with families to limit "lethal means" to youth at risk of suicide.