At High Risk
It turns out that Kelvin was at an elevated risk for suicide. Young Black male suicide rates have increased rapidly since the 1980s. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is now the third cause of death among African-American males between the ages of 15 and 24, behind homicide and accidental injury.
“I had no idea that my son was even at risk for suicide,” Smallwood says. “If I had been aware, I would have been talking to him about this and asking the right questions.”
Lack of awareness, she says, is a major problem. “It doesn’t get mentioned on the news unless it’s a famous person; so many people don’t realize that suicide is a serious problem.”
Kelvin had argued with his girlfriend hours before he had kicked in the door of Smallwood’s locked bedroom door while she was away to get the .40-caliber pistol she had kept for protection. Mental health experts emphasize that such details are not nearly as relevant as the fact that the No. 1 cause of suicide for college students is untreated depression.
“The data suggest that 80 to 90 percent of people who commit suicide are suffering from clinical depression or another undiagnosed mental illness,” says Dr. David Satcher, a former U.S. surgeon general who now serves as director of Morehouse School of Medicine’s Center of Excellence on Health Disparities. “We tend to try to look for reasons that this sort of thing happens at a particular time, but invariably this is someone who was dealing with an undiagnosed mental disorder.”
Smallwood says she doesn’t believe her son sought counseling.
Xanthos, who last year authored a special report titled “The Secret Epidemic: Exploring the Mental Health Crisis Affecting Adolescent African-American Males,” says an increase in Black male suicides is not surprising considering the “unique social and environmental stressors, including racism,” they have to deal with. “The mental health profession needs to become more culturally sensitive to their needs and get out the message that it’s OK to get help and be vulnerable,” Xanthos adds.
