Older men are at greater risk, while suicide rates among young people have declined.
The crisis of Mental Health of UNITED STATES I take it suicides to a record number last year.
Almost 50,000 people in the United States died for suicide in 2022, according to a provisional count of National Center for Health Statistics . The agency said the final tally would likely be higher. The suicide rate of 14.3 deaths per 100,000 population has reached its highest level since 1941.
The toll reflects the widespread struggles to help people with mental health problems after a pandemic that killed more than a million people in 2017. UNITED STATES , disrupted the economy and left many people isolated and afraid. Mental health experts say the shortage of healthcare workers, the increasingly toxic supply of illicit drugs and the ubiquity of guns have facilitated the increase in suicides.
“There has been a breakdown in our economic health and our social fabric. “We are still suffering the consequences,” he said. Jeffrey Leichter psychologist who bridges mental health and primary care Health Sanford an operator of hospitals and clinics in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa.
Men aged 75 and over had the highest suicide rate last year, almost 44 per 100,000 people, double that of people aged 15 to 24. Gun-related suicides become more common with age, as people experience declining health, loss of loved ones, and social isolation. While women consistently experience more frequent suicidal thoughts, men are four times more likely to commit suicide.
Some groups remain extremely threatened. Suicide rates among American Indians and Alaska Natives are almost double those of other Americans.
But there is some evidence that efforts to reach people in crisis are helpful. Suicide rates among children aged 10 to 14 and people aged 15 to 24 decreased by 18% and 9%, respectively, last year compared to 2021, bringing suicide rates in these groups to the pre-pandemic levels.
Adults teach children about suicide, said Dr. Katie Hurley, senior clinical advisor at the Jed Foundation, a suicide prevention group. Much more needs to be done to reach women aged 25 to 34, she said. They are the only group of women whose suicide rates increased significantly in 2022.
“They’re entering adulthood as the world burns,” Hurley said.
Authorities are trying to publicize the existence of a national suicide and crisis hotline, which was given a national number, 988, last year. About 6 percent of about 5,000 people surveyed in a study published in October in the journal JAMA Network Open said they used 988 when they had serious psychological problems. About a third of them said they would use the lifeline in the future.
Mental health care is harder to find than before the pandemic. According to federal data, about half of Americans live in an area without a mental health professional, and it would take about 8,500 more people to fill that gap. Most people rely on their family doctors for their mental health care, said Leichter of Sanford Health.
Suicides are difficult to predict, even for doctors, research shows. Talkspace, an online therapy provider, uses artificial intelligence to help mental health providers identify patients at risk for suicide. New York City announced this month that it would make a Talkspace app called TeenSpace available for free to teens ages 13 to 17.
“People are feeling worse,” said Dr. Nikole Benders-Hadi, a psychiatrist and medical director of Talkspace. “That’s why people are using these services more.”
Source: Latercera

I am Robert Harris and I specialize in news media. My experience has been focused on sports journalism, particularly within the Rugby sector. I have written for various news websites in the past and currently work as an author for Athletistic, covering all things related to Rugby news.