What can be done about youth suicide? Student journalists at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication have set about answering that question, seeking to uncover workable solutions to what’s become an alarming public health crisis.
Drawing on field work and interviews with scores of their peers, parents, teachers, lawmakers, clinicians and counselors from across the state and country, students have identified a multiplicity of factors linked to youth suicide, rooting out insights into prevention efforts that have worked. It is an attempt to go beyond the simple answers and provide a more complete account of a phenomenon that health experts say is expected to worsen amid the COVID-19 crisis.
A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey found that, shortly after the pandemic swept the country, about 1 in 4 young adults, ages 18-24, had “seriously considered suicide.” The project will culminate in a 26-minute documentary to be simulcast Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, at 6:30 p.m. on more than 25 Arizona TV stations, including Arizona PBS, and at 5 p.m. on Spanish channels.
