A local nonprofit is sounding the alarm over increasing rates of self-harm and thoughts of suicide among young people in the Finger Lakes region and calling for school-based responses to prevent further harm.
Common Ground Health’s report points to a surge of emergency department visits for self-harm among children and teens ages 6 to 17.
“Of the 1,903 youth in the Finger Lakes region who sought ED care for self-harm, 71% of them returned to the ED at least one more time that same year for additional behavioral health treatment,” the report states.
The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration defines self-harm as an intentional act in which a person hurts their own body as a means of coping with emotions like loneliness, anger, or hopelessness. The agency noted that it's typically not intended as a means of dying by suicide — but if left untreated, people who self-harm have a higher risk of attempting suicide.
“Right now, the children are not well,” said Wade Norwood, co-CEO of Common Ground Health and Rochester Regional Health Information Organization, which merged last year. "(We) need to make sure that we adults are communicating to young people that they are not crazy. The world is the pell-mell, scary experience that they see it as.”
In the 2023-24 school year, one-third of LGBTQ high school students surveyed in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported self-injury, and 22% reported they’d made a plan to die by suicide. About one-third of Latino students and a quarter of Black students reported feeling sad or hopeless for more than two weeks.
"These data indicate youth of color are experiencing significant challenges and could benefit from culturally relevant supports,” the report states. “A local mental health professional noted that suicide can be so culturally stigmatized among the Black community that it is often not talked about, making it difficult for someone experiencing those feelings to know how to talk about it and with whom.”
Common Ground Health recommends cultivating school environments that foster a sense of belonging, trust, and emotional resilience as a means of preventing crises. Of the possible ways forward, the organization’s report supports the implementation of community schools, social emotional learning, and restorative practices.
The protective skills that can be taught in schools — skills that can prevent emotional turmoil from becoming a crisis — that the report highlights are things like self-awareness, establishing and maintaining relationships, and resolving conflicts.
“In the light of this very frightening data, we need to make sure that children know that there are community resources and community neighbors and loving adults and friends who are here to help,” Norwood said.
One such community resource in the city of Rochester is Roc the Peace, which provides youth mentoring for ages 5 to 11 and teen advocacy programming for ages 12 to 18.
“They all are dealing with just everything that is happening around them in the community. Specifically in the Rochester area, there is a lot of violence going on and crime, so just learning how to advocate for themselves and the folks around them, to be an example in their schools and in their homes,” said Tamara Howard, a youth advocate. “We're teaching them everything from boundaries to self-awareness, knowing what they like, what they don't like, what's normal currently in their home that's not healthy.”
It's important to teach skills, Howard said, including how to de-escalate conflict.
“It is definitely a sense of empowerment our youth, especially low-income, Black and brown youth in this city ... their surroundings are set up to fail if they don't have the skills and the knowledge to get out of their situation or change their mindsets and behaviors,” she said. “And knowledge is something that no one can take away from you.”
