Bonnie Watson Coleman: “I thank my colleague from Illinois for yielding and organizing this Special Order hour on what I think is a very…”

“I thank my colleague from Illinois for yielding and organizing this Special Order hour on what I think is a very important topic. Five years ago, I founded and chaired the CBC's Emergency Task Force on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health. Mental health emergencies and suicides among young Black youth have been on the rise, but this troubling trend had gone mostly unnoticed outside of the mental health field. Steadily and quietly, our children were dying, succumbing to depression, anxiety, and loneliness. So I and several of my colleagues, who will speak here tonight, came together to get to the bottom of this problem. We brought in experts, including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, teachers, school administrators, and students to help us paint a picture of this problem. The picture was grim. Between 2007 and 2020, a Black child died by suicide every 3 days. The suicide rate among Black youth ages 10 to 17 increased by a staggering 144 percent. Among young children ages 5 to 12, Black youth were twice as likely to die by suicide, and the suicide rate for teenage girls increased by almost 7 percent each year. These findings would make anyone sick to their stomach.…”