Amelia Noor-Oshiro, PhD Candidate in Public Health, Johns Hopkins University

Death by #suicide is the number one cause of death for young #adult #AsianAmericans.

Racially motivated violence looks like the mass shootings that killed Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Chung Park, Hyun Grant and Suncha Kim in Atlanta on March 16, 2021. Racially motivated violence also looks like #suicide, which is defined as a deliberate act of self-directed violence in order to cause injury to oneself that results in death.

According to data from the #CentersforDiseaseControlandPrevention, #suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the #UnitedStates. When broken down by #race, #suicide is the first leading cause of death among #AsianAmerican young #adults age 15-24. This is true of no other #racial group in this age range in #America.

Despite this disparity, very little attention is paid by society and by gatekeeping institutions like academe and private and public funding agencies as to what causes #suicidalbehavior among #racialminorities like #AsianAmericans. There is not enough research on how to prevent #suicide among #AsianAmericans in particular. What makes this research more challenging to do is that #AsianAmericans are also the least likely #racial group to seek and utilize #mentalhealthservices.

I am a doctoral candidate studying public health, with a focus on minority #mentalhealthdisparities research. Here’s what I think is important to know about how violence, #suicide and disparities all connect to affect #AsianAmerican lives.
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/2022/04/jamesdonaldson-on-mentalhealth-asianamerican-young-adults-are-the-only-racial-group-with-suicide-as-their-leading-cause-of-death-so-why-is-no-one-talking-about-this/