Why this is important?
With the end of the pandemic, many adolescents have been affected mentally: idleness, instability, depression, anxiety, access to drugs. Recent statistics show that the uncertainty of falling into a possible recession and the high costs of living make these young people more vulnerable to suicide attempts.
Suicide Hotline
Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health
800-854-7771 (24 Hour Bilingual)
The number of 18-to-24-year-olds in California who reported having thought about committing suicide at some point in their lives increased to 30.5% in 2021 from 23.9% in 2020 — the year COVID-19 emerged in the U.S. —According to new data published by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Those figures represent a dramatic increase from just five years ago. The research center’s 2016 survey found that 14.1% of California’s young adults said they had experienced thoughts of suicide at some point in their lives.
The 2021 data is from the latest California Health Interview Survey, the nation’s largest annual health survey on a single state. The survey highlights the consequences of the pandemic in terms of people’s mental health and their ability to afford or access needed health care.
In the study, 36.7% of respondents age 13 to 17 said they needed help for emotional or mental health problems, but 26.2% of them did not receive any counseling in the past year.
“There is an urgent need for resources that will aid Californians through a crisis that’s dramatically affecting people’s mental health,” said Ninez Ponce, director of the center and principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey. “Our findings show that more people are experiencing serious psychological distress, more people are in need of professional help and more people are reporting moderate or severe impairment in their work, social lives, relationships and daily activities. Our hope is that these data will be used by policymakers and the public to help improve the Californians’ health.”
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