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Teen girls across the United States are “engulfed in a growing wave of violence and trauma,” according to federal researchers who released data Monday showing increases in rape and sexual violence, as well as record levels of feeling sad or hopeless.

Nearly 1 in 3 high school girls reported in 2021 that they seriously considered suicide — up nearly 60 percent from a decade ago — according to new findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 15 percent of teen girls said they were forced to have sex, an increase of 27 percent over two years and the first increase since the CDC began tracking it.

“If you think about every 10 teen girls that you know, at least one and possibly more has been raped, and that is the highest level we’ve ever seen,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health who said the rise of sexual violence almost certainly contributed to the glaring spike of depressive symptoms. “We are really alarmed,” she said.

Ethier said it’s important to determine who is perpetrating the violence, which the survey did not address, and how it can be stopped.

Almost 3 in 5 teenage girls reported feeling so persistently sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row during the previous year that they stopped regular activities — a figure that was double the share of boys and the highest in a decade, CDC data showed.

Girls fared worse on other measures, too, with higher rates of alcohol and drug use than boys and higher levels of being electronically bullied, according to the 89-page report. Thirteen percent had attempted suicide during the past year, compared with 7 percent of boys.

Richard Weissbourd, a psychologist and senior lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, said there is probably not a single cause to explain the data but rather interacting causes that vary by race, ethnicity, class, culture and access to mental health resources.

Even so, he said, “girls are more likely to respond to pain in the world by internalizing conflict and stress and fear, and boys are more likely to translate those feelings into anger and aggression,” he said. Boys are more likely to “mask depression,” he said, while girls may be more vulnerable to social media and “a culture obsessed with attractiveness and body image.”

Read more at WashingtonPost.com.

As the one-year anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan has come and gone, about 100 Afghan youth remain in United States government custody without their parents—the majority of whom are placed in shelters and other congregate care settings. This number reflects both great progress in releasing hundreds of Afghan youth to sponsors over the past year and significant issues that plague the system serving unaccompanied minors.

Afghan children fled to the U.S. hoping to find security and freedom after unexpectedly having to leave their lives and families behind. But for too many of these children, one unimaginable trauma was replaced with another: After escaping the brutal Taliban regime, Afghan youth who have yet to be reunited with family have languished for months in highly regimented settings ill-suited to meet the needs of children with complex trauma.

Most children live with constant anxiety about the safety of their families in Afghanistan but face strict limits on how often they can speak with their families—often just two 10-minute phone calls per week. One 16-year-old Afghan boy said he participated in a hunger strike to secure more phone time, explaining “We were really struggling mentally with how little we were able to talk to our families. It really helps our mental health to be able to speak to our families and make sure that they are okay.”

Read more at Time.com.

Data continues to show that Latinos do not seek out therapy or other mental health support at the same rates as other racial or ethnic groups. An increasing number of Black, Asian and white Americans are seeking out mental health treatment while the rate of Latinos remains near stagnant, according to a recent analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This could be in part because of relatively low numbers of Latino mental health providers, a fact that could affect who seeks treatment as some patients want a provider who understands their cultural background. Stigma surrounding mental health conversations and services could be another factor. Little data, if any, is collected on those who seek support from spiritual healers.

Both healers and researchers say Latinos and other Southern Californians, who aren’t necessarily connected to the culture, often turn to curanderismo (traditional healing) when they’ve felt Western medicine didn’t meet their needs. It is difficult to definitively measure the medical benefits of spiritual healing, but these same experts point out that an integrative approach with doctors and healers working together in clinics arguably produces benefits beyond those easily documented in an X-ray or CT scan.

In the U.S., these healers aren’t typically found working alongside doctors and nurses in primary care practices, but that’s changing in small pockets of the U.S. and other parts of the world. It’s similar to the recent movement in California, Arizona and other states where Indigenous leaders are pushing for Medicaid reimbursement to cover traditional healing services that they see as beneficial to tribal members’ mental health.

Read more at SanDiegoUnionTribune.com.

In the wake of the Monterey Park shooting and another, two days later, on a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay — both of which were committed by gunmen of Asian descent, against mostly victims of Asian descent — many Asian Americans are now working to increase access to mental health care in their own communities.

Asian Americans have long faced barriers to care, including language access and cultural stigmas against therapy and other treatments. Overall annual average estimates for the 2008 to 2012 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health found that of all racial groups surveyed, Asian adults were the least likely to use any mental health service.

Kaila S Tang, a psychotherapist and founding team member of the non-profit Asian Mental Health Collective, says that much of that stigma is rooted in trauma. Like Barbara’s parents, many Asian immigrants and refugees survived genocide, war and other hardships before coming to the US.

“Many first-generation Asian immigrants have been so focused on survival that there’s no room for anything else, like emotions,” Tang said. “This survival tactic has protected them, but as a result, they don’t have the tools to cope with the overwhelming emotions. And if you’ve been through something as emotionally challenging as what they’ve experienced, why would you want to revisit that trauma or open that box?”

According to a 2022 study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, Asian American elders receive significantly less emotional support than peers of other races — one reason being the lack of accommodation for their language needs. Only 15% of Asian Americans aged 65 years and older speak English at home, and 60% have limited English proficiency.

Because of these barriers, Asian American organizations have taken a more culturally sensitive approach to the way they provide resources to the community in the wake of the shootings.

Read more at TheGuardian.com.

Data from a new study suggests that young LGBTQ+ people in America aren’t comfortable in their own skin — literally.

The latest study results from the Trevor Project on LGBTQ Youth and Body Dissatisfaction are out.

Researchers found that some LGBTQ+ youth are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with their bodies, with trans and nonbinary youth showing even higher rates. Also, LGBTQ+ youth who reported body dissatisfaction were significantly more likely to have attempted suicide in the past year than those who expressed being satisfied.

The prevalence of recent depression symptoms for LGBTQ+ youth with body dissatisfaction was higher than for youth with body satisfaction. For LGBTQ+ youth who reported body dissatisfaction, 61 percent reported self-harm and 48 percent considered suicide in the last year. In comparison, 38 percent of LGBTQ+ youth who were satisfied with their bodies had self-harmed and 27 percent considered suicide, the study found.

LGBTQ+ youth who were dissatisfied with their bodies had a twice higher chance of having attempted suicide in the past year than LGBTQ teens who were satisfied with their bodies, according to the study.

The study notes that research shows that young people who receive gender-affirming care report improved body satisfaction.

Read more at Advocate.com.

More than 113,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) live in 492 counties that lack mental health providers, according to a new report from GoodRx Research.

Over 90% of these areas are in rural parts of the U.S., where healthcare resources are already limited, the report stated.

“In fact, there are fewer than one psychiatrist or psychologist for every 30,000 people living in these counties,” said Amanda Nguyen, a health economist at GoodRx Research.

Nguyen said mental health access is lacking in the South Central, Midwest, and Alaska regions of the U.S.: These regions have the highest number of mental health care deserts, including Texas (30 mental health desert counties), Kansas (13), Oklahoma (8), Nebraska (8), and Alaska (7) have some of the highest numbers of mental health deserts. In addition to Alaska (11,171), South Dakota (14,650) has one of the highest numbers of AI/AN residents living in mental health deserts.

“It’s important to note our analysis focused on psychiatrists and psychologists, due to their ability to diagnose and prescribe medication for mental health disorders,” she added. “It did not take into consideration the important mental health care and support that therapists, social workers, primary care physicians, and traditional healers may also provide to these communities.”

The report also found that poor broadband access limits access to telehealth services, which could help with mental health resources.

Read more at DailyYonder.com.