Preventing youth suicide: it concerns us all

Talking about suicide and its prevention is a necessity and an obligation we have as a society, because these are preventable deaths. We need information to recognize its causes and warning signs, to unlearn all the beliefs and cultural myths we have inherited, and to offer a conscious perspective to those closest to us.

When we talk about teenagers, almost children, and young adults, the phenomenon becomes even more tragic. Although it's not new that suicide is the leading cause of unnatural death among this population group, the number of suicide attempts and deaths we've seen in this past pandemic year has set off alarm bells worldwide.

As an example, in Spain, the ANAR Foundation's annual report documented a 244% increase in suicidal ideation among children and adolescents compared to the previous year. This increase also reflects issues such as anxiety (+289%), low self-esteem (+212%), and depression or sadness (+87%). All hospitals have reported this trend in relation to the increased number of cases requiring care for self-harm and suicide attempts, rising, for example, from 4 attempts to 20 per week at the Sant Joan de Déu Maternal and Child Hospital in Barcelona. Looking at other countries, the phenomenon is similar. In Mexico, for instance, the number of suicides among minors aged 10 to 14 increased by 37% compared to 2019, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

And the question we must ask is, what can I do to help these children and young people?

You can do the same thing a firefighter would do in a burning house—a metaphor widely used in this context. Children, teenagers, and young adults have small fires that accumulate, fires we may not see, but we can see and smell the smoke. This smoke is a form of warning signs and risky situations that we can recognize and address, regardless of our position: family, friends, or teachers .

Putting out these small fires will prevent them from igniting the fuse that will set the house ablaze. All it takes is being attentive, asking directly, without fear of questioning our young people about suicidal thoughts, and seeking professional help.