SUICIDE THOUGHTS PREVENTION

The mental health crisis hitting Americans shows no sign of abating, with provisional numbers for 2022 showing suicides rose by another 2.6 percent last year.Today’s report underscores the depths of the devastating mental health crisis in America,” U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, M.D., said in a CDC news release. “Mental health has become the defining public health and societal challenge of our time. Far too many people and their families are suffering and feeling alone.”People with autism are over three times more likely than their peers without the developmental disorder to experience self-injury, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, or death by suicide, new research shows.“In general, I think there needs to be more support for individuals with autism. And this shows that there are life-threatening consequences in terms of suicide and self-harm,” said Alycia Halladay, chief science officer for the Autism Science Foundation. She was not involved in the study.