The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America
Over the last several years, data has emerged indicating an alarming increase in the suicide rates for Black children and teenagers over the past generation. While research has also shown climbing rates for youth from other racial and ethnic groups, this trend in Black youth runs counter to historical data showing lower rates of suicide among Black Americans. It challenges the public perception that Black youth simply do not commit suicide. Additional research about suicidal behaviors has raised questions about whether the path from suicidal thoughts to attempts is well understood in Black youth, and whether we have the knowledge and tools to intervene before the worst happens.

Michael Lindsey is Executive Director of NYU Silver’s McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research and is the School's Constance and Martin Silver Professor of Poverty Studies. A child and adolescent mental health services researcher, Dr. Lindsey is particularly interested in the prohibitive factors that lead to unmet mental health need among vulnerable youth with serious psychiatric illnesses, including depression and suicide. He has received research support from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to examine the social network influences on perceptual and actual barriers to mental health care among Black adolescent males with depression. He also received NIMH funding to develop and test a treatment engagement intervention that promotes access to and use of mental health services among depressed adolescents in school- and community-based treatment.