Giving Compass' Take:

• Kimya N. Dennis explains the cultural barriers that prevent the accurate collection of suicide in communities of color. 

• Data is essential for understanding the scope of a problem like suicide, how can funders help raise shift attitudes around suicide to improve data collection and prevention? 

• Find out how mental health research can create support. 

In the African-American community, there’s a tendency to label suicide and mental health conditions as “crazy” or evidence that you aren’t praying enough. People in this culture, as well as Hispanic, Asian and American Indian communities, are less likely to acknowledge the possibility of having a health condition or seek mental health services.

Whites have a suicide rate of 18.5 per 100,000 people, leading to the highest total number of suicides for any racial or ethnic group in the U.S. Whites also comprise the majority of membership in suicide prevention organizations and have greater access to resources needed to seek out mental health services.

Meanwhile, African-Americans make up about 12 to 13 percent of the U.S. population and are underrepresented in suicide data.

Data suggest that African-Americans have approximately 6 percent of the recorded rate of suicide compared to whites. But this data is likely incomplete – thanks to deaths that have been misclassified.

The number one recorded cause of death for African-American males between the ages of 15 and 34 is homicide. But are these deaths often characterized by law enforcement, coroners and family as accidental or homicidal when, in fact, the individual wanted or expected to die?

Read the full article on suicide data by Kimya N. Dennis at The Conversation.