Suicide Prevention Awareness Month 2022

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness month and here at eLuma, we are deeply committed to bringing more awareness to this critical issue. Unfortunately, this crisis continues to grow and here’s what we know:

• From 2013 to 2019, 1 in 5 teenagers in the U.S. had experienced episodes of major depression (CDC).

• Depression increases the risk of a first suicide attempt by at least 14-fold (CDC).

• Over half of all youth who suffer from depression will attempt suicide at least once, and more than seven percent of these will die as a result (KSU).

• Each day in our nation, there are an average of over 3,703 attempts by young people grades 9-12. If you include grades 7 & 8, the numbers are much higher (CDC).

• Suicide rates among people ages 10 to 24 increased by 57 percent from 2007 to 2018. More recent data suggest that the overall suicide rate among our youth continues to increase (CDC).

• Suicide is the SECOND leading cause of death for ages 10-24. (CDC WISQARS)

• More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, COMBINED (CDC).

While these numbers are alarming, there is also hope. If we can identify and support young people who are experiencing mental health symptoms, including thinking about suicide, we have an opportunity to help prevent tragedy. There is a large gap between the number of young people thinking about suicide (about 1 in 10) and the number who die by suicide (1 in 10,000). In other words, there are 1,000 young people currently struggling with the idea of ending their life for each young person lost to suicide. Most importantly, that means that there are 1,000 opportunities to provide understanding and support to those experiencing difficulties.

With this in mind, we’re doing the following to help raise awareness and make a difference.