Thread by @shayshinecastle

Dif thread but the same presentation: Starting on Slide 12, we're talking youth suicide. documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocVie…

Obviously this is going to be a difficult topic for some, so if that's you, you might want to sit this one out. Most of the numbers are just ages and counts, if that helps in making your decision.

Emergency room visits for suicidal ideation are up 20% from 2020-2021. For youth (ages 10-17) are up 41%

Females age 10-17 were almost twice as likely to visit the emergency room with suicidal ideation in 2019 and 2021.

2020 was a bit more even, but still higher for females.

Suicide attempts increased 82% from 2019 to 2020, and then 11% from 2020-2021.

Youth suicide attempts up 63% in 2021 from 2020.

Again, female youths 2X as likely to visit the emergency room for suicide attempts.

LGBTQ+ youth also more likely to report considering suicide or depression, according to a survey from Healthy Kids Colorado.

Deaths from suicide have ranged from 60-66 per year in Boulder County from 2018-2021.

2021 data isn't complete yet but "does not appear to be significantly different from other years," according to BoCo epidemiologist Michael Wu.

Wu cautions that the large % increases are partly due to the small actual numbers we're dealing with here. Suicidal ideation among youths is in the 200-300 range, and attempts in the 100-200 range.

Which is still a lot when you're talking about suffering of this kind, but it does make % jump around a lot.

RE: that Healthy Kids survey, more than 1 in 4 (26.9%) of BoCo youth report "being so sad and hopeless that they stopped regular activities."

For LGBTQ+ youth, that's closer to 1 in 2: 47.7%

12.5% of youth reported seriously considering suicide
For LGBTQ+ youth, 33% did — that's 1 in 3 LGBTQ kids

Mayor Brockett: If a community member knows a teen who is struggling with suicidal ideation, what's the first step? Where can they go?

Jax Gonzalez: Mental Health Partners has a crisis center that runs usually 24 hrs (though hours were recently cut —boulderreportinglab.org/2022/02/09/bou…

MHP is the best place, Gonzalez says. Rise Against Suicide is also a good choice: riseagainstsuicide.org

Friend: Did I see that there was a 62% increase in suicidal ideation among the 65+ population?

Yes, Wu explains. But the total numbers are relatively small (13 more people from 2020-2021) so any jump is huge.

Clarification: that's 13 more emergency room visits, so it's possible some people are being counted more than once, Wu adds.

Friend: There was also a 50% increase in deaths among that population, right? "It's a small number, but it's a startling number."

Wu confirms.

RE: The Healthy Kids survey.... Friend points out that the data was from 2019. So pre-pandemic.

"It's just been redone in the schools," Gonzalez says. "We should see that data later this year."

Friend: I would guess those numbers are only getting worse. What steps are we taking at a public health level? Do you recommend anything for we as city leaders? "These are really troubling statistics."

Dr. Gujral: "A lot of research has shown that getting children, particularly teens, back into routines and school" helps a lot, and may have strengthened those connections with schoolmates stronger than they were in 2019.

"We know that social supports become important and valuable," Gujral says, which is why we worked so hard to get kids back in school safely.

Friend: "It's pretty disheartening to see how hopeless both the young and older adults are in our community."

Benjamin: Why are ideations and attempts increasing but not deaths?

Gonzalez: "We can't actually tell you why that's happening. We don't have qualitative interviews."

But from research on youth suicide generally, Gonzalez says, kids were less likely to be home alone and therefore less likely to complete their attempts.

"That's speculation," they caution. "I can't tell you exactly why."

Speer: What's the correlation here with mental illness? I expect we're seeing big increases in mental illness as well...?

Wu: "We don't have any data to support that at the moment but it would be reasonable to think there is probably some association there."

That's it for this section.

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