#Black #girls not only edge out their #white counterparts, but also #Black #boys, with soaring rates of #suicide—partly because they've been ignored for so long

By Ezinne Ukoha

“Something is happening among our #Black #girls,” Dr. Arielle Sheftall said last fall.

Sheftall, lead investigator of the Center for #SuicidePrevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, made it her mission to dissect the #suicidalbehavior of #Black #youth, and in a 2021 study, she unearthed something important: The rate of #suicide among #Black #girls ages 15 to 17 was increasing at twice the rate of #Black #boys every year between 2003 and 2017, though more #Black #boys are dying by #suicide than #Black #girls. This was “quite concerning,” Sheftall told Columbus news station 10 WBNS.

#Black #youth are abandoned and condemned by authoritative voices at #school and sometimes at home. They’ve been trained to bear unfairness while functioning in dysfunctional spaces. Yet, while #white #youth have been extensively examined and assessed through the years, the ongoing crisis crippling the survivability of #Black #boys and #girls hasn’t been on the radar in the same way. “I think in the past, #suicide—or #suicidalbehavior—was just thought of as a #white thing,” Sheftall told the New York Times last fall. But based on the trends that Sheftall and other researchers have lately uncovered, particularly among #Black #girls, it appears that we should be in emergency mode.

What #Black #kids—and especially #Black #girls—are dealing with

The #kids are not doing alright. The arrival of #covid wreaked havoc on whatever young people once considered “normal,” distancing them from their peers and stretching a shadow of uncertainty and fear over their developmental years. Against this backdrop, the #mentalhealth of young people became more closely watched than ever, and numerous reports, like the New York Times’ extensive look at #teens suffering from #anxiety and #depression in lockdown, have laid bare a crisis. Between the start of #covid and early 2021, a quarter of #kids reported #depression. and one in five reported #anxiety, according to a study published last August.

That brings us to the state of #Black #youth in #America. Despite the common assumption that #white #kids are more prone to #suicide compared to other groups, #Black #youth #suicide is alarmingly on the rise. A 2018 study found that the rate of #suicide among Black #kids under the age of 13 was about twice that of #white #kids under 13. That same year, #suicide became the third leading cause of death in #Black #teens, and the second leading cause of death in #Black #kids under the age of 14, according to the #NationalInstituteofMentalHealth.

In January, California reported the state’s #suicide rate among #Black #youth had doubled since 2014. We are reminded daily that #Black people are disproportionately killed by #police brutality in #America, which the U.S. Surgeon General cited in a December 2021 advisory on #youthmentalhealth. Thanks to the accessibility of #socialmedia, #Black #kids are more aware than ever before of the history of violence against younger victims, like Tamir Rice—undoubtedly a source of brewing inner turmoil.

And there’s more bad news. A new study, released in April, delved deeper into how #covid affected the psychological development of #Black #girls, from late 2020 to spring 2021. Study author Dr. Natasha Crooks, assistant professor at UIC College of Nursing, interviewed 25 #Black #girls from the ages of 9 to 18 and discovered an array of issues plaguing her participants, including evidence of “significant #psychological and physical consequences, including #depression and #anxiety, disrupted eating, distorted body image, and changes in #self-esteem,” as UIC Today reported. “#Black #girls are a very vulnerable and unprotected population, especially within the context of #covid,” Crooks told the publication.

Crooks also noted that #while #Black #girls struggled with #isolation, in a similar fashion to their #white counterparts, the additional exposure to #socialmedia and the viral footage coming out of #BlackLivesMatter, most notably of#GeorgeFloyd and #BreonnaTaylor, could be a source of confusion and fear. “A lot of what the #girls talked about was feeling empowered to be #Black and having a sense of pride within their identities,” said Crooks. “On the other hand, there was fear that came with color of their skin—fear of being harmed themselves, or their fathers, brothers, or other family members being hurt.”

Marline Francois-Madden, a self-described “policy-facing #therapist” who authored the book The State of #Black #Girls, says the #mentalhealth of #Black #girls has been grossly neglected for so long that it was only a matter of time before the data would raise the alarm. “It’s not until the last year and a half that we began seeing more articles talking about some of the differences as it relates to gender, when it comes to #Black #youth and how #Black #girls are suffering at an alarming rate,” she told Jezebel. “Now we are slowly paying attention and recognizing what makes the #Black #girl experience unique compared to #Black #boys.”THE #LONELINESS AND CONFUSION STEMMING FROM THESE EXPERIENCES MAKES IT HARD FOR #BLACK #GIRLS TO ARTICULATE THEIR EMOTIONAL TURBULENCE, WHICH PREVENTS THEM FROM SEEKING HELP.

Clearly, #Black members of the #mentalhealthcommunity aren’t shocked by these findings. #Black #girls in #school are generally seen as more mature and face more discipline compared to #white #girls, often punished instead of given the help they need. #Black #girls in particular have a difficult time dealing not just with the #racism and how it informs the methods of disciplining them at #schools, but the extra layer of colorism that afflicts darker-skinned #girls. #Black #girls are also over-sexualized by misleading narratives found in mainstream media at a young age into young adulthood. There’s also the realization that #race and #racism are literally being wiped out from our schools’ curriculum, which alienates #Black #youth who are hyper-aware of the systemic disparities afflicting people who look like them. In general, #behavioraldisorders are under-detected in #Black #girls. There’s also the risk they will be casualties of the criminal justice system, the foster care system, and the health care system.

The #loneliness and confusion stemming from these experiences make it hard for #Black #girls to articulate their emotional turbulence, which prevents them from seeking help. Instead, they recoil inward. “For a lot of #AfricanAmerican #girls, they’re taught to be strong. They’re taught to keep their feelings inside,” Lauren Carson, executive director of nonprofit #Black #Girls Smile, told Stat News in 2017. “For young #girls, it’s breaking down this misconception that it’s OK to be in a bad relationship. It’s become OK to be sad a lot of the time. It’s been OK to be angry.”

Figuring out exactly why #Black #girls are killing themselves at a higher rate than even #Black #boys and certainly their #white counterparts will take time, since researchers are playing catch-up. But this churn of #isolation, unfair treatment, and neglect is notable.

#James Donaldson notes:Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticleOrder your copy of James Donaldson's latest book,#CelebratingYourGiftofLife:From The Verge of Suicide to a Life of Purpose and Joy

www.celebratingyourgiftoflife.com

What needs to be done for #Black #girls

#Schools and other authoritative voices aren’t equipped to deal with the desperate state of #Black #girls. Aside from the generational and #racial #trauma, there’s a lack of adequate #mentalhealthcare to address their unique needs, especially in environments that are wired against their best interests. And if they do have access to #mentalhealthcare, treating their #mentalhealth can’t be a “one size fits all #kids” approach.

“The #mentalhealthcommunity can certainly do more. We can do more in the way of making sure that services are culturally responsive, that our providers, in particular, are culturally attuned,” Dr. Michael Lindsey, an executive director of the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research and incoming dean of the NYU Silver #School of Social Work, told Jezebel. “We need them to be ready and trained well to be able to work with #Black #youth and their families in a way that’s not further stigmatizing or that is perhaps further prohibitive with respect to the connection to that treatment.”

The consensus from #Black #mentalhealthexperts centers around the need for the #mentalhealthcommunity to rally around this growing crisis by becoming more of a resource and delegator for #schools and #parents, who lack the preparation to help their #children navigate their lives during tumultuous periods. And as #Black #parents may not be familiar with the landscape of the #mentalhealthcommunity, Lindsey dispelled the myth that only a #Black #therapist can effectively treat a #Black #child. “In terms of what #Black families might want: I think they typically do want their #child to have a therapeutic experience with a person that looks like them and represents their #ethnic identity. I think that’s important,” he said. He likewise sent a word of caution to #Black #parents: “I read a research statistic that only about 4 percent of the #behavioralhealth workforce is actually #Black. So it’s a bit of a unicorn.” That, of course, is a problem in itself.

But before even the therapy stage, someone has to recognize when a #Black #girl is struggling. Francois-Madden explained that there needs to be “safe spaces” at home, #school, and locations for extracurricular activities—where #Black #girls can be vulnerable. “So allowing them to have the space where they can create programs centered around their joy, their liberation, their wellbeing. Allowing them the space to say, ‘Hey, this is what we want,’ because oftentimes it’s the #adults that make the decisions,” she said.

But these solutions aren’t yet being pursued, in part, because researchers didn’t study #Black #girls closely enough until recently. “Researchers are the ones doing the studies. And when you look at that, you wonder what’s the likelihood that a #Black researcher has the funding to do research specifically around #Black #boys and #Black #girls,” Francois-Madden said. “If it’s a predominately #white space of researchers, especially the ones with doctorates, then the way it’s being handled may not look the same, compared to someone who may be able to identify with the struggle of #Black #adolescents.”

In order to fully grasp why the statistics are so grim, researchers, #mentalhealthcarepractitioners, and #teachers who previously viewed the #suicide crisis through #white-centric lenses will have to essentially begin the process of understanding the complexities of growing up in a country that still needs the reminder of why #Blacklivesmatter. Because #Black #girls are not alright.
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/2022/12/jamesdonaldson-on-mentalhealth-we-are-losing-black-girls/