Young Hispanic and Elderly Asian Women at Highest Risk for Suicide

Young Hispanic and older Asian females have notably higher rates of suicide and suicidal ideation than their non-Hispanic white counterparts, reported experts from the New York State Office of Mental Health at a hearing of the State Assembly last week.

In New York City, teenage Hispanic girls are hospitalized for depression at a rate of 388 per 100,000 (compared with 374 for teenage white girls) and are hospitalized after attempting suicide or talking about it at a rate of 95.5 per 100,000 (compared with 88.5 for teenage white girls). Asian women 65 and older in the city have a suicide rate of 11.6 per 100,000, more than double the rate for non-Hispanic white women in that age group.

Examining the causes of these rates, experts cited higher levels of emotional distress and alcohol use among Hispanic youth as well as cultural and linguistic barriers than may prevent these women from seeking help. Although surveys show that as many as 40 percent of older Asians showed signs of depression, many perceived mental health services to be "unhelpful, inappropriate or irrelevant." Meanwhile, young Hispanic women may find themselves both pressured by family expectations and disheartened by media images "of affluence...always trying to create additional needs and wants in them."

Read more: Suicide in 2 Ethnic Groups Is Topic at Assembly Hearing