This week, our newsletter is highlighting how health care is failing children with mental health needs — and what can be done about it
I hope you’re having a great Labor Day weekend.
I hate to interrupt your long weekend, but I wanted to let you know briefly about something different we are doing with The Charlotte Ledger this week.
We’re taking an up-close look at teen mental health.
It’s a serious topic and one that touches a lot of families in Charlotte and around the country. But there’s a stigma around mental illness, and it is not widely discussed. Make no mistake, though, it is a problem, especially among our youth:
The suicide rate in North Carolina for kids aged 10 to 17 has nearly tripled since 2002.
Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for North Carolina children aged 10 to 18.
In a 2021 survey, more than one-fifth of N.C. high school students said they have seriously contemplated suicide, and 43% said they felt sad or hopeless
This week in The Ledger, in partnership with North Carolina Health News, we’re shining a light on this troubling trend — and exploring what can be done to help alleviate this crisis. We’re calling this week’s series of articles “The Kids Are Not Alright.” Look for it starting tomorrow morning.
Our reporting, led by veteran Charlotte journalist Michelle Crouch, found that the surge of adolescent patients with anxiety and depression is placing serious strains on mental health resources in Charlotte and around the state. It’s difficult to find psychiatrists and other behavioral health specialists, for instance. The lack of treatment programs for teens in North Carolina is forcing some youngsters needing intensive help to spend days in hospital emergency rooms, which can be scary and violent places that are typically not set up to treat mental health patients. “I was terrified,” an 11-year-old told us, referring to a three-day stay in an Atrium Health emergency room after a suicide attempt in May.
Because this is such a critical topic, we’re breaking from our usual format. We will have newsletters on this issue Tuesday through Friday morning, with our usual summary of other local news at the bottom of each issue. This week’s newsletters will also be free to all.
We’re able to share this “The Kids Are Not Alright” series with you because of the support of The Ledger’s paying members, and because of our partnership with North Carolina Health News, a nonprofit news organization that covers health care statewide. If you’d like to support our work on this series, you can donate tax-free to a fund by North Carolina Health News that supports independent, original journalism on the business of health care in the Charlotte region.
Feel free to let us know your thoughts on this important series or experiences you have had on this topic. Thanks.
Tony Mecia, editorThe Charlotte Ledger[email protected]
Other recent series by The Charlotte Ledger:
July 2023: “Faces of AI” — how Charlotte businesses are experimenting with artificial intelligence (🔒)
April 2023: “Trials of the Century” — a look at some of Charlotte’s most spectacular courtroom trials (🔒)
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Business manager: Brie Chrisman, BC Creative