Black Suicide
In past decades, according to the United States Center of Disease Control, black youths historically had lower rates of suicide than those of their white peers. Recently, however the number of suicides by younger blacks has been increasing significantly and narrowing the gap. During the 15 years from 1980 to1996, the suicide rate for black youths aged 10 to 19 years increased from 3.6 to 8.1 per 100,000 population. In 1996, suicide was the third leading cause of death among blacks 15 to 24 years of age. High school-aged blacks were as apt as whites to attempt suicide. Suicidal behavior among all youths has grown, and rates for black youths have increased more. The book Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis among African Americans by psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint explains that suicide is more common than people think in black communities. Poussaint says that many black youths this age commit suicide due to mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and despondency,. Rising
Black youths, as noted above, frequently do not get the help they need because of their distrust of the white providers. In addition, they do not want to show personal weakness or be stigmatized by their community members because of seeking mental healthcare support. Further, the social nature of the black community encourages that help is traditionally first sought from the church and clergy who are only recently being trained in depression and mental illness. Carl Burton and Kenneth Poussaint are two black youths who unfortunately joined the statistics of those who committed suicide. At an early age, they were both into drugs and served sentences for their crime. They were both given medicine for depression, but neither continued taking it. Their isolation, as well as dislike of themselves and the white society continued to grow along with their other drug use. Both of them committed suicide, possibly as a better alternative to life itself as it existed. suicide rates and the tragic circumstance
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Approximate Word count = 681
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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