Improving teen mental health resources can reduce gun violence

An important but often less-discussed aspect of addressing our nation’s gun violence epidemic is youth suicide undertaken with firearms. According to a report by Everytown for Gun Safety, a national nonprofit organization, the suicide rate among young people has increased about 15 percent during the pandemic, with nearly half of all their suicide attempts involving a gun. Let’s consider how these numbers could be directed toward a downward slide instead of an upward trend.

Young people facing anxiety, depression, or cyberbullying can feel an acute sense of desperation, leaving them to conclude that a self-inflicted fatal bullet may be the only solution. There is widespread agreement across the political spectrum that more mental health resources for timely intervention would be helpful. At the federal level, the primary resource has been the National Suicide Prevention Line. Yet in an age where most teens have a high degree of tech savvy as digital natives, this system has required dialing a 10-digit number to connect since 2005.

Thankfully, the Federal Communications Commission has begun a much-needed transition to a voice and text system that will use only three digits — 988 — as the connecting number. Making this Lifeline easier to use can represent all the difference to a teen who is making a split-second decision whether to reach out to someone before initiating a tragic outcome.

Beyond this technological switchover, it will be important to get the word out widely through mass media and social media. We already have 911 ingrained in our consciousness for other emergency calling. It’s now time to do the same for 988. Parents and teachers also can encourage youth to save the number in their smartphone contact list in order to make it always accessible.

There will need to be more government funding allocated to expand the call centers that are the Lifeline’s backbone, as well, which will involve hiring enough professionals so that response time can be reduced. Suicide often can be a minute-by-minute decision, which requires timeliness to be prioritized so that at-risk teens can reach out to a trained mental health counselor in a quick and seamless way.

Since the profile of some recent mass killing perpetrators has included reports of their prior suicide attempts, an increased focus on optimizing the National Suicide Prevention Line also may prevent such devastating acts. If someone with a gun is able to get real-time counseling to avert a suicide and alleviate follow-on thoughts of killing multiple people, it also may help reduce mass killing gun violence.

Since there is no single way to reduce gun violence, fortifying the National Suicide Prevention Line represents an important obvious, near-term priority. Let’s create unified support across the political spectrum for making it a much more effective tool going forward.

Stuart N. Brotman is the Howard Distinguished Endowed Professor of Media Management and Law and Beaman Professor of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He served as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. and is the author of “The First Amendment Lives On.”