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Suicide

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An excerpt from Pennsylvania’s Suicide Prevention Month Guide Start the Conversation:

September is Suicide Prevention Month, with the week of September 8–14 identified as National Suicide Prevention Week. September 10 is recognized as World Suicide Prevention Day in countries around the world. This year marks the beginning of a new three-year theme focused on changing the narrative on suicide, which involves moving beyond awareness to starting conversations and taking action. Across sectors and settings, changing the narrative requires both culture and systemic change to provide meaningful education, advocate for resources, and prioritize suicide prevention in an ongoing way.

Read the Start the Conversation guide to learn how to speak with others about suicide prevention as well as gain access to toolkits and resources.

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The Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers (PACHC) is offering free behavioral health training opportunities. A training session on Co-Occurring Mental Health & Substance Use Disorders for PACHC members will take place on July 25 from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm, focusing on evidence-based practices and medication-assisted treatment. Registration is free; register here to attend.

Additionally, PACHC is partnering with the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU) for a five-part webinar series on Suicide Safer Care July – August 2024, which is aimed at equipping health center staff with strategies to support patients and staff at risk. Sign up for the series at the Webinar Series for Suicide Safer Care for Health Center Staff Registration page or browse ACU’s Suicide Safer Care resources.

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Message from the Department of Human Services (DHS):

Mental health conditions can impact all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, ability, class, sexual orientation, or other social identities. However, systemic racism, implicit and explicit bias, and other circumstances that make individuals vulnerable can also make access to mental health treatment much more difficult.

Mental health care is important to a person’s overall wellbeing. Mental health conditions are treatable and often preventable. Yet many people from historically marginalized groups face obstacles in accessing needed care. These obstacles, which have only been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, may include lack of or insufficient health insurance, lack of racial and ethnic diversity among mental health care providers, lack of culturally competent providers, financial strain, discrimination, and stigma. Moreover, immigration status, economic conditions, education levels, and access to public health benefits are just a few differences that can adversely impact people’s experiences when seeking mental health care.

Since 2008, July has been designated as National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to acknowledge and explore issues concerning mental health within minority communities and to destigmatize mental illness and enhance public awareness of mental illness among affected minority groups across the nation.

Taking on the challenges of mental health takes all of us.

All of society benefits when all people have access to mental health care, supportive social conditions, freedom from stressors that can compromise mental health, and access to other resources needed for health. We all have a role to play in promoting health equity.

Learn more about Minority Mental Health Month:

What is Mental Health Equity?

Mental health equity exists when everyone has a fair and just opportunity to reach their highest level of mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Mental health disparities are defined as unfair differences in access to or quality of mental health care according to race and ethnicity. Disparities can take on many forms, are quite common, and are preventable. They can mean unequal access to good providers, differences in insurance coverage, or discrimination by doctors or nurses.

Mental Health Equity Statistics

  • 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year
  • 1 in 20 U.S. adults experience serious mental illness each year
  • 1 in 6 U.S. youth aged 6–17 experience a mental health disorder each year
  • 50 percent of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14, and 75 percent by age 24
  • Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people aged 10–34

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Title: A Panel Discussion: Unpacking the Pediatric Behavioral Health Crisis and Key Steps to Address Short- and Long-Term Needs

Date: Thursday, January 27, 2022
11:00 am–12:00 pm EST

Registration: Attendees can register online for the event and add it to their calendar.

Description: Join us for a panel discussion highlighting aspects of the ongoing pediatric behavioral health crisis, seeking your input, and discussing a path forward for ways to better support children and families. As you likely know from your professional and/or personal experience, far too many children and youth across the country are unable to access timely, quality mental health care. What was a crisis before the pandemic has only worsened. According to the CDC, since March 2020, mental health visits have increased for children (ages 5–11) by 24% and youth (ages 12–17) by 31%. In the first half of 2021 alone, children’s hospitals reported cases of self-injury and suicide in ages 5–17 at a rate 45% higher than during the same timeframe in 2019.

This event will be recorded.

A national campaign, Sound the Alarm for Kids, is bringing together organizations calling on Congress to act now to prevent further unaddressed harm to our nation’s children. Every child in America should have the right to live up to their full potential. The mental health crisis is a national emergency – and we’re in the fight of our lives to end it. 

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American Rescue Plan Funding Will Support State Efforts to Transform Suicide and Mental Health Crisis Care

Today the Department of Health and Human Services, through its Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), will make critical investments in suicide prevention and crisis care services, announcing $282 million to help transition the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline from its current 10-digit number to a three-digit dialing code – 988.

In 2020, Congress designated the new 988 dialing code to be operated through the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Converting to this easy-to-remember, three-digit number will strengthen and expand the existing Lifeline network, providing the public with easier access to life-saving services. The Lifeline currently helps thousands of people overcome crisis situations every day. The 988 dialing code will be available nationally for call, text, or chat beginning in July 2022.

Standing up the 988 dialing code is a key part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s focus on ensuring that those in crisis have someone to call, someone to respond, and somewhere to go. The 988 code is a first step toward transforming crisis care in this country, creating a universal entry point to needed crisis services in line with access to other emergency medical services.

With funds from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget and additional funds from the American Rescue Plan, SAMHSA’s $282 million investment will support 988 efforts across the country to shore up, scale up, and staff up, including:

  • $177 million to strengthen and expand the existing Lifeline network operations and telephone infrastructure, including centralized chat/text response, backup center capacity, and special services (e.g., a sub-network for Spanish language-speakers).
  • $105 million to build up staffing across states’ local crisis call centers.

“As we continue to confront the impact of the pandemic, investing in this critical tool is key to protecting the health and wellbeing of countless Americans – and saving lives. Giving the states a tool to prevent suicide and support people in crisis is essential to our HHS mission of protecting the health and wellbeing of everyone in our nation,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “We know that remembering a three-digit number beats a ten-digit number any day, particularly in times of crisis, and I encourage every state to rev up planning to implement 988 for the sake of saving lives.”

To support the initial transition to 988, SAMHSA’s investment represents a budget increase of more than 10 times the FY 2021 budget amount of $24 million. A large portion of FY 2022 funding will be distributed to crisis centers across the country.

“This investment in states’ crisis call center operations will help strengthen our partnership as SAMHSA works with states to meet the suicide prevention and behavioral health needs of people across our nation,” said Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, Ph.D., the HHS Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use and the leader of SAMHSA. “Transformation of this scale is never easy – but too many Americans are experiencing suicide and mental health crises without the support and care they need. The federal government cannot do this alone.”

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people and was the tenth-leading cause of death in the nation in 2019, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. In 2019, one death by suicide happened almost every 11 minutes in the US.

More recently, SAMHSA’s 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data show 4.9 percent of adults aged 18 or older had serious thoughts of suicide, 1.3 percent made a suicide plan, and 0.5 percent attempted suicide in the past year. Among adolescents 12 to 17, 12 percent had serious thoughts of suicide, 5.3 percent made a suicide plan, and 2.5 percent attempted suicide in the past year. The findings vary by race and ethnicity, with people of mixed ethnicity reporting higher rates of serious thoughts of suicide.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a new report, “Differences in State Traumatic Brain Injury-Related Deaths, by Principal Mechanism of Injury, Intent, and Percentage of Population Living in Rural Areas-United States, 2016–2018,” that shows Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)-related death rates are higher in the South and Midwest regions of the United States (U.S.). States with a higher percentage of people living in rural areas also had higher rates of TBI-related deaths during 2016–2018. Suicide and unintentional falls contributed the highest number of TBI-related deaths in most states. Some additional key findings from this report include:

  • The South and Midwest regions had the highest rates of TBI-related deaths (19.2 per 100,000 and 18.1 per 100,000, respectively). The overall U.S. TBI-related death rate was 17.3 per 100,000.
  • The Northeast and West regions had the lowest rates of TBI-related deaths (12.8 per 100,000 and 16.8 per 100,000, respectively).
  • The lowest rate was in New Jersey (9.3 per 100,000), while the three highest state rates were in Alaska (34.8), Wyoming (32.6), and Montana (29.5).
  • Suicide was responsible for the highest number and the highest rate of TBI-related deaths for most states.
  • More than 40 percent of TBI-related deaths were due to homicides or suicides.
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