- Just ahead on Black Issues Forum, for generations, mental health in the black community has been whispered about, prayed over or ignored.

But today, the data demands our attention.

In part one of this two-part series, we examine the research, the policies and the community response here in North Carolina.

Experts and advocates join us to break down what the numbers reveal and what must change.

Coming up next, stay with us.

- Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you, who invite you to join them in supporting PBSNC.

(upbeat music) ♪ - Welcome to Black Issues Forum, I'm Kenia Thompson.

This week's conversation is not easy, but it is necessary.

For generations, mental health in the black community has been whispered about, prayed over or pushed aside, but we cannot afford to ignore that suicide is rising among black children and adolescents.

This is part one of a two-part conversation that's examining the rise in suicide rates among black youth, starting with the data, the research and the systems that are designed to respond.

Next week in part two, we'll sit down with a young licensed psychotherapist who survived a suicide attempt, lives with a bipolar II diagnosis and is a thriving advocate in her work today.

Today, we do wanna take a deep dive though into the national and statewide landscape, the policy response and the community solutions.

I wanna welcome Bettie Murchison, mental health advocate and CEO of Oasis Health and Wellness Centers International.

Next to her, or actually next to me, is Dr.

Sonyia Richardson, the John A. Tate Early Career Distinguished Fellow for Children in Need and Assistant Professor in Social Work and Psychiatry at UNC Chapel Hill.

And lastly is Reverend Tammy Russell-Meadows, the Southeastern Regional Director at Swing 5 Swing SFI and leader of the Empower Mind Initiative.

Welcome to all.

But before we begin tonight's conversation, I do want to acknowledge that we'll be discussing suicide and mental health challenges that are affecting black youth and perhaps all of our viewers.

This topic may be difficult or triggering for some.

Our goal is to inform and encourage open dialogue, not to provide medical advice.

And if you or someone you know is struggling, please know that support is available.

You can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at any time.

So Dr.

Richardson, I wanna start off with you.

You know, we're starting to hear that black suicide is rising, those rates are rising.

What is the data actually showing us?

- Yeah, well, thank you so much for having me with you today.

So what the data is showing is that at a national level, suicide rates have increased 144% for black adolescents from age 10 to 17.

And this is from 2007 to 2020.

And it's not just the death, it's the suicide deaths that are increasing, it's the suicide attempts as well.

The attempts are more prevalent with our black girls.

And what we know is over a 25 year span of looking at the data, suicide attempts have increased for black youth by 75%.

And so we're seeing increasing deaths and we're also seeing increasing suicide attempts.

Now in our state of North Carolina, we're seeing some of those same trends.

And North Carolina was actually one of the top four states for black youth deaths in the country.

And we also know that in North Carolina, our black youth are overusing emergency room services to respond to their suicide attempts and suicidal ideations.

So across the state, there's increasing use of ERs for the youth.

And we also know at the same time, while they're increasing their use of the ERs, they're also under using 988, which is a suicide prevention crisis hotline.

So instead of preventing suicide, they're waiting until it gets to the point of crisis and then seek an emergency care.

- Well, and I think that unfortunately speaks to not understanding how to reach out, where to reach out to.

Historically, and I'll just speak personally growing up, you know, that wasn't something we heard about, you know, black kids either attempting or committing suicide.

Not that the thoughts weren't there, but what's contributing to the shift of seeing more black youth being part of this data?

Bettie, I'll go to you.

- Well, from some of the research that Dr.

Richardson and Dr.

Rodney Harris, who's one of our colleagues have conducted, they feel COVID was a turning point.

That with COVID, so many children lost their grandparents or their aunts or uncles.

They lost the foundation, the people they could go and talk to, the folks who would take care of them when need be.

And it was very hard for all of us, even as adults, to understand and deal with the crisis we went through during the shutdown.

I can remember watching one of my friend's mother's funeral on Facebook.

And my friend could not travel to New York 'cause they had a travel ban at that time to even attend her own mother's funeral.

That affects you psychologically.

And I think our children, because parents were going through so much themselves, they didn't recognize signs in their children when the shift occurred.

And children had to learn, had to go to school online.

And some of them struggled.

We lost a lot of our educational advances during COVID when kids were forced to sit at computers at home, often alone.

And sometimes adolescents had to take care of two or three other children within the household and take care.

One young man said, "I'm a student and a teacher at the same time."

- That's a lot of pressure.

- It's a lot of pressure, yes.

- I wanna bring in Reverend Tammy, any contributions that you've seen in addition to COVID and those pressures over these last several years in this increase?

- I think social media has a lot to do with it also.

I do believe that so many things transpire on social media that puts kids and young children on edge and not knowing which way to go.

They think they find all of their answers on a social media platform.

And there's bullying going on, they're targeted.

So I think social media plays a strong part in it also.

- Bettie, tell us about the work that's being done at Oasis and how does that?

- Yes, we are so proud.

We're real proud to be associated with UNC and the Suicide Prevention Institute.

We were accepted into a cohort two years ago whose focus was on suicide across North Carolina.

And now we're in another cohort focusing on child mental health.

And so that's the area, that's the intersection that we really feel that we can make a difference in.

So we founded the Village of Care along with Dr.

Rodney Harris, co-founded the Village of Care.

And CARE is an acronym for our mission.

Our goal was to find enough compassionate people in the village, make them aware that we're in the middle of a child mental health crisis, educate them so that they can become the R, the resource within the community.

Because we don't have enough social workers, we don't have enough social workers of color who understand the black experience.

Insurance is a nightmare.

So many of our children are in crisis but people are unaware of what to do, how and where to go and where to find resources.

So by training them in either youth mental health first aid or adult mental health first aid, we can help them identify a crisis, understand what to do, what to say.

Many of us don't even know what to say.

And we have to practice asking, are you considering harming yourself or someone else?

And that's a really tough question to ask.

- That's a very tough question 'cause you have to be prepared for the answer.

- You have to, yes.

And then we prepare them by letting them know where the resources are in the neighborhood, in the community.

So the 988 hotline, for instance.

Then there's also mobile crisis units where someone can come to your door.

We don't want the people to feel that the first resource is calling the police.

- Yeah.

I'm gonna come back to you but I want to talk about North Carolina specifically and how a couple of years ago, we've adopted the Black Youth Suicide Prevention Plan through the Health and Human Services Department.

What does that plan actually include for youth and families and how do people access those resources?

- Well, there is no wrong door in the state of North Carolina.

I want people to understand that.

You can call a licensed therapist, you can call a provider agency such as mine, you can call a provider agency, reach out to your sources and go to your church.

Ask somebody in your church because I do believe that there is a platform there.

And I do think that we have to have more accessibility and make our children feel far more comfortable in being able to go to their pastor or go to the head deacon or go to the missionary, go to the mother of the church.

- Well, with that being said, the church has been a place where we've seen a lot of folks get turned away.

- Well, that's true.

- And so you're saying that that's changed now.

- In this current generation, I do think that it's changed because of people like us, people like that you have, that there's more education opportunities available for us out there now.

And so younger and generational and in seminary, we're learning, they're focusing on that more.

There are classes and there are more preparation so that we will know how to deal with it in the church, not to push it away and not to act like it doesn't exist, but to create a safe space where they're indeed comfortable with coming and saying, you know, I did bad on a test, I don't wanna go home and tell my parents, you know, until the level of expectation that's overwhelming, they don't know how to address that.

And so I do believe that the tides are kind of changing towards that because there are people out here like us that are educating people.

- Yeah, to that point, are we seeing, although we're seeing a rise in numbers, but are we seeing youth, young adults speaking out more?

- Absolutely.

So in reference to the North Carolina Black Youth Suicide Prevention Action Plan, North Carolina was actually the first state in the country to create a Black Youth Suicide Prevention Action Plan.

And so we have developed a five-year plan.

This came about through our partnership with SAMHSA.

SAMHSA had a Black Youth Suicide Prevention Policy Institute.

So we're really proud about that plan.

Part of that plan includes the development and implementation of a youth advisory board.

So our first year of implementation of the action plan, we had over 123 applications of Black youth who wanted to be a part of this board.

And so currently we're in our year two of implementation.

We enrolled all of the youth that applied last year.

We paid them for their participation.

So we had some funding to pay them for that.

And they created outreach, disseminated information, and they were statewide.

So we had HBCU representation.

We had high school students who are now coming on board year two.

And so this is a community-led initiative.

UNC, the Village of Care, the partners at the table, we're just helping to create the resources, bring together the infrastructure, but we know the community knows what's best for them.

So we're championing our efforts behind the community and paying them to do the work.

- Now I know that this is specifically for Black youth, but are we seeing other programs kind of adapt this inclusive mindset of considering our children?

- Absolutely, and what we've said from day one is that we're adhering to a curb-cut effect model.

And the idea with curb-cut is you create resources for those communities that are underserved.

And then those resources, as you find that they're working, they actually help and benefit all communities.

So just like closed captioning is something that's benefited all of us.

And so we do believe the model that we're creating is a model that can be duplicated for veterans.

We know North Carolina, recent data has shown the rates are increasing now for veterans for suicide in North Carolina.

This can be used for LGBTQ+ populations, Latino women.

And so we're creating a model, piloting it, and partnering with the Black community for it, but knowing that what we're packaging is something that can be used for all kinds of populations.

- 'Cause that's what really matters, right?

And we know that there's a specific need within our community, but everyone also deserves access to this.

Let's talk about warning signs, right?

I'm a parent and I know I have a 13-year-old daughter and an almost 16-year-old son, but that teenage girl dynamic sometimes, you know?

And so while we have shared specific experiences, how do we identify, you know, let's say she shares something with me, how do I know that this isn't just hormonal teenage stuff versus something that I really need to pay attention to?

- And all parents struggle with that, I assure you.

And I think the more we talk about it, normalize talking about it, the more we can help each other.

So thank you for bringing that up.

I think that all of us, all humans will go through trauma, we'll go through experiences with depression and sadness.

If it's long lingering, if they start giving away precious items, things that mean a lot, if they become withdrawn, those can be some signs.

But what we have learned through the research that Dr.

Richardson can address is that sometimes black youth don't go through the warning signs that we have learned about for other folks.

That's why we need more funding to do more research to see why is it that a black youth can make a decision and within 10 seconds or so, they have already taken their lives.

- What are, well, I know the research still needs to be done, I guess, to identify what those behavior patterns look like, but what have you seen?

What's an example of one that may not have fit the status quo of examples?

- Have you had therapy with some-- - I have an example.

- She's a therapist.

- What we're finding with the black youth suicide rates is that for black youth, it's not so much depression that's increasing the rates, it's anxiety.

And anxiety is often coming from feeling as if they have to be 10 times better.

It's the over-performing, it's the constant work, the never slowing the body down.

Those things are wearing out not only our youth, but our caregivers as well.

And so our youth are presenting with high rates of anxiety.

And anxiety is what is then increasing the rates of suicide.

And so that presentation is different.

And so I am seeing, specifically in my role as a therapist, I'm seeing young black girls who maybe are number one in their class, who are performing well, involved with sports, athletics, just doing all kinds of stuff, but they're worn out and they just can't do it, they can't take it anymore.

And so we really have to stop that narrative of you have to be 10 times better, because even when we're 10 times better, sometimes that still doesn't matter.

So we're slowly killing ourselves and we have to be careful with that.

- So anxiety, okay.

I wanna bring you back in.

Let's talk about Swing 5 Swing and that organization and the work that's being done there.

- Oh, my pleasure.

(all laughing) - See, I've been waiting for this the whole time.

- So Swing 5 Swing Social Fellowship, we're launching something very near and dear to us, a foundation called the Dr.

Gwen Keith Newsome Foundation.

We are starting that because Dr.

Gwen Keith Newsome was a wonderful, extravagant woman in this profession.

She was a retired professor from North Carolina Central University, loved what it was, her job that she did.

And so we are going to have a big launch at her church, Faith Christian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, March 28th, 2026, from 10 to one.

It's gonna be like a mental health fair and we're gonna take that opportunity to educate the community.

We're gonna have a lot of some vendors to come by to pass out literature and some material.

We're gonna have some presenters, people to come and talk about all the conspiracies and all the things that's going on with youth and mental health.

So we're looking forward to that.

We're doing it in four states.

We're starting the launch here in North Carolina and we're gonna move it to South Carolina, Georgia and Florida because the Southeastern region, which I am the regional director of Swing by Swing.

And so we're just so excited about it.

And we have so many things planned.

Bettie is wonderful with helping us to plan it 'cause she's also a sister of Swing by Swing.

Bettie incorporated this wonderful young lady and Dr.

Harris.

And so it's just going to be fabulous and very informative.

And we are hoping to reach a lot of people.

We are hoping to be able to open up a lot of doors to let people know what is available to them because what I found in this profession, lots of people just don't know the resources that are available to them.

- Yeah, and we did display the email address on screen.

So if folks want to get more information, they can email that.

So let's talk about resources.

I'd love to bring in the parent perspective.

We kind of touched on it, but what are resources that are available for parents?

Maybe we're not ready yet to have the conversation.

Maybe we're unsure, right?

We're seeing the anxiety.

How do we start?

- Yeah, so a great resource that's free is 988.

So 988 does not require the child or the person who's suicidal to call the phone line.

It can be a caregiver, it can be a neighbor, a teacher.

You can call 988 and talk about some things that you're seeing, some warning signs, some things you're concerned about.

And when you call 988 in North Carolina, you get a trained clinician.

So you actually get to speak to a clinician for free and really kind of get their thoughts and perspective on resources.

They can also refer you to free resources that are available in your local community.

And so that's an available and free resource.

In my research lab, we also have developed and co-created with the black community in Charlotte, a suicide prevention care coordination intervention with faith-based mental health hubs.

So we have two churches that we're running a clinical trial out of where we are testing a intervention that the community created.

So the community created the intervention.

They told us what we needed and what was needed there.

We are now piloting that within two churches.

So in North Carolina, if there is a suicidal youth, ages 13 to 19, they can get access to our clinical trial where they would be connected to a care coordinator who gets them connected to the resources, which goes back to what was mentioned.

People don't know the resources, but we also are assessing suicide risk.

And that is a free resource that's available and something we're really excited about.

- And so kind of adding onto that, and perhaps you can chime in, how are we involving the youth in this data collection, in this understanding, and are they in the design of the programs?

- Absolutely.

Dr.

Richardson is in charge of our youth advisory board.

So that group of 100 plus that she was discussing, they meet monthly and they have been trained.

So now they're trained to-- - This is the board that you were referencing earlier.

- Yes, and they are, at the recent conference we had in Rocky Mount, they created beautiful posters and it spoke to the audience from the youth point of view rather than something as gray hairs created.

And so they were just amazing.

So the messaging, that's the main thing.

We wanna help with the messaging, the design of whatever intervention we work on.

You know, we do a lot of work in barber shops and beauty shops.

We go in there and give out gun locks, give out Narcan, give out information.

And thanks to Reggie Winston and Dr.

Rodney Harris, we've trained about 100 barbers to be first responders.

Because think about it, sometimes if you take your son to the barber shop, the barber may be the first person to notice there's a change in their behavior.

And men tend to talk to other men in barber shops and in bars, right?

And so that's a safe place.

And that's what we want to do.

We want to go into the community to bring the resources rather than the community coming to them.

- Let's talk quickly about, and it may not be quick, but is research, I know you're talking anxiety, but racism, bullying, social media, all of that, that's still a present factor.

- So it's a compounding factor.

So what we know, and going back to the discussion on social media, what we know is that in the past, our kids were dealing with, let's take for instance myself.

I was raised, we were the first black family to integrate an all white neighborhood in the specific neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina.

And my siblings experienced suicidal ideation and attempts.

And I witnessed some of that in my household.

Although we were a middle-class family, we were the only black family in that neighborhood.

We dealt with a lot of racism.

And then we were going to all white schools.

So we dealt with racism there.

So we didn't have an opportunity to escape.

The difference nowadays though, is back then we could have racism outside of the home, come home, be insulated and protected from it, go to church if we're at a black church, be protected from the racism.

But now our kids have social media.

So they don't get a break.

They don't get a break from the racism, discrimination, the sexism.

It's constant, you don't belong, you don't fit, you're not intelligent, you're not smart, you're not enough.

And so that has really changed the landscape.

- This may be a sensitive question to ask and forgive me if it is, but it triggered a thought when you said Narcan and gun logs, are we seeing a specific method approach that we should be more aware of or conscious of?

Again, I'm having trouble wording that because I do sense the sensitivity around it, but is it just the overall attempt or are there specific approaches?

- Yeah, well, we know that guns are the most lethal form of violence because if you take pills and you're found in time enough, they can pump your stomach and you can be saved, but a gun is very lethal.

And that is the second highest way that people take their own lives.

So we know that gun locks aren't the only solution, but it is certainly better than not having your weapon put away so that it's so accessible.

Guns are so accessible in our neighborhoods now.

And so if we can take that away, then hopefully we can get resources to them before they choose suicide.

As far as the Narcan is concerned, it was a recent case here that I talked to a reporter about where two young girls went to a bar on Glenwood South and they stepped out to get a hot dog or something.

They didn't have food at the bar.

And when they came back in, someone had drugged their drinks.

I don't think folks do the, in the old fashion, in the old days, we were told you never leave your drink alone.

If you come together, you leave together.

We had rules for engagement, right?

And I don't think kids do that now.

So anyway, these two girls got a Uber to take them home.

And when they got to their apartment, the Uber driver couldn't wake them up.

And he immediately knew what was going on, called the rescue squad and they had to use Narcan to bring them back.

- It's been a lifesaver for sure.

Before we end, I think we've got maybe about a minute left and Reverend, I know it's kind of been centered here, but feel free to chime in.

If parents do find themselves having to walk down this journey with a child, their child, what should they expect?

How do they start navigating this space?

- Yeah, so I would say definitely reach out to the North Carolina Black Youth Suicide Prevention Action Plan.

Know that you're not alone.

It's very common.

Suicidal ideations are common.

Among black kids, it's one in four are thinking about death.

And so it's a pretty high rate.

So reach out.

There's people across the state who are ready and willing to help and we're here.

So pick us up and contact us.

- Dr.

Sonyia Richardson, Bettie Murchison and Reverend Tammy Russell-Meadows, thank you all so much.

I appreciate the work that you're all doing and hopefully this was helpful.

- Thank you.

- Yes, thank you.

And I thank you for watching.

If you want more content like this, we invite you to engage with us on Instagram using the hashtag #BlackIssuesForum.

You can also find our full episodes on pbsnc.org/blackissuesforum and on the PBS video app.

I'm Kenia Thompson.

I'll see you next time.

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