Suicide Is A Major Issue Among African American Adolescent Males Essay

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Suicide has become a major issue amongst African-American adolescent males. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS), suicide is the third leading cause of death for Black boys age 13 to 17 (CDC, 2014). That is above the number of deaths due to chronic diseases such as cancer, HIV and diabetes (CDC, WISQARS 2016.). Additionally, CDC reports for 2014 there were 68 African-American adolescent males that completed suicide and 1131 reported attempts for that year (CDC, WISQARS 2016). This is a significant number, although not all suicide attempts are reported (Joiner, 2005). Furthermore, suicide accounted for 10 percent of deaths of adolescents in 2014 reports (CDC, WISQARS 2016).
While the loss of life is significant, there are other cost associated with suicide. The average medical cost associated with suicides is $5,518 per person (CDC, 2010, National Vital Statistics System). In addition to medical cost, the average work loss, cost is $1,684,460 (CDC, 2010, National Vital Statistics System). Medical cost and loss of work cost are very important, but they only take into account the numbers associated with the individual who committed suicide. It does not factor in the cost of failed attempts or other cost related to love ones, such as their emotional cost or toll suicides takes on the surviving family members. This is why identifying the factors related to suicide is very important.
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