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“Spotlight on Adolescent Girls' Mental Health: A Closer Look at Suicide,” was a unique opportunity to rethink the tragedy of adolescent suicide, sponsored by the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York, which considers issues through a “Jewish and gender lens.”

 

Together with Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein, President and CEO of Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the program addressed the coverage of the Centers for Disease Control’s report “Increase in Suicide in the United States, 1999-2014,” which included a New York Times article proclaiming ”U.S. Suicide Rate Surges to a 30-Year High” and asserting an “alarming increase among girls 10 to 14, whose suicide rate . . . had tripled.” (4/6/16; emphasis added). We examined the CDC report more closely, revealing that it in fact describes an incremental (1-2%/year) increase that took place over a 15-year period, belying the sensationalized headline.

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