September’s Suicide Prevention Awareness Month may have passed, but the conversations surrounding mental health remain important throughout the year.
On Tuesday, Sept. 15, a partnership between the NAACP chapter and the University Counseling Center brought the community together for a suicide awareness walk, emphasizing the importance of recognizing mental health struggles and supporting those affected by them.
The conversation has since extended beyond the campus event. During an NAACP chapter meeting the previous Tuesday, Sept. 8, President Mia Austen raised concerns about a reported 71% increase in suicides among Black children in Louisiana over the past decade, bringing renewed attention to a growing public health concern.
According to a January report by KSLA, the Louisiana Suicide Prevention Among African Americans Task Force presented findings showing the increase among Black children under 18. The report also highlighted concerns about suicide among boys ages 5-12, underscoring that mental health struggles can affect young people long before they reach adulthood.
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In February, KSLA revisited the findings, shifting the focus from the data to the people working to address the crisis. In the report, Louisiana counselors expressed concerns about the financial support needed to expand services and meet the needs of Black youth and their families.
Alongside that, the article acknowledges the intersectional combination of experiences that prevent people from receiving assistance, such as social pressures, racial inequality, poverty, generational trauma and the stigma surrounding mental health care.
Together, the reports raise a question that extends beyond the statistic itself: What conditions shape a young person’s ability to seek help, feel supported and imagine a future in which their struggles can be addressed?
It’s important to remember that mental health does not exist separately from the environments people navigate.
Focusing on Black youth does not mean treating suicide as a problem belonging to one race; it means analyzing the data about a particular community while recognizing that every young person deserves support.
For some Black youth, seeking mental health support can mean navigating the stigma within their own communities alongside broader barriers to care.
President of Sons of Promise, Daughters of Destiny, Brooklyn Leslie, a junior health sciences major and active member of Southeastern’s NAACP chapter, said the reported increase further emphasizes the need to promote mental health in Black communities.
“There’s a deep-rooted stigma around mental health in Black culture, especially in the South, particularly among older generations who grew up deep in Christian faith,” Leslie said.
Leslie added to her thoughts, sharing how mental health concerns for Black youth can be downplayed or dismissed because adults are not taking them seriously.
Rather than being judgemental, she encourages older generations to “take the time to really hear and ask what they need” and help them seek culturally competent resources.
With this perspective, it reminds society that to examine the reported increase is to acknowledge the racial disparities in health outcomes and how they intersect with broader social and institutional barriers.
While the studies focus on Black children and adolescents, the February report from KSLA does not ignore how these struggles can trickle into adulthood, revealing that more Black students in Louisiana institutions are seeking help.
Jamie Wells, director of counseling and health information at Centenary College, said: “So it does make sense that college-age students would have those unresolved and unprocessed things kind of follow them and impact them in a potentially negative way.”
That transition makes early support especially important. As young people prepare for college and adjust to new academic and social pressures, access to trusted resources can help determine whether they feel comfortable asking for help.
Roshanna King, a licensed professional counselor who has worked with Southeastern’s Upward Bound and Math & Science Upward Bound programs for more than 20 years, sees college preparation as more than an academic process. The programs work with high school students preparing to pursue higher education, including young people of color navigating multiple factors that prevent them from seeking help.
“Access to mental health services and the availability of mental health professionals that look like them are often deterrents,” King said.
King also cautioned that statistics alone cannot provide all the information needed to address the needs of marginalized populations as “these young people often suffer in silence.”
While these problems remain prevalent amongst Black students, campus events can bring people together and make difficult conversations more visible. Sustained prevention, however, also requires informed communities and opportunities for young people to seek help without fear of judgment.
As Suicide Prevention Awareness Month passes, the need for meaningful conversations about mental health remains.
Suicide affects people across racial, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, but recognizing disparities means paying attention to the communities experiencing them and the barriers they may face.
The goal is not simply to raise awareness for a month, but to build a culture in which mental health is taken seriously year-round and every young person has the opportunity to be heard, supported and connected to care.
The University Counseling Center is available to students at 985-549-3894 or in person in Room 303A of the Student Union Annex.
Students can contact the ViaLink Crisis Hotline at 833-603-0008 for additional support.
