Rebroadcast: The mental health crisis among American children of color
This rebroadcast originally aired on May 12, 2022.
Editor’s Note: This story includes accounts of self-harm and suicide. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline number, a free and confidential service, is available at 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
NSPH is also online and has representatives available to talk through chat at suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
Youth suicide has been on the rise across the United States.
And for young people between the ages of 5 and 12, the suicide rate for Black children is nearly double that of white children.
The pandemic has made the situation even worse.
Today, On Point: The mental health emergency for children of color.
Guests
Tami Charles, she lost her 10-year-old son, Seven Bridges, to suicide.
Kevin Simon, trained adult, child and adolescent psychiatrist physician. Assistant at the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Boston Children’s Hospital. Instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. (@DrKMSimon)
Transcript: Tami Charles Remembers Her Son Seven Bridges
MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: Tami Charles is joining us today. She’s in Louisville, Kentucky. Tami, welcome to On Point.
TAMI CHARLES: Thank you, Meghna.
CHAKRABARTI: Thank you so much for being with us today. I wonder if we could start. I’d love to hear the description of … your son, Seven Bridges. What was his smile like?
CHARLES: Infectious. That kid smiled the second day we saw him and had not stopped. His smile was infectious. He was a genuinely happy, happy kid.
CHAKRABARTI: And tell me more about the second day you saw him. Why was that particularly important?
CHARLES: Oh it was the first day that I saw him that was important. But the second day was the day that he smiled. And, you know, they say that the angels are playing with the babies and all of that. But, boy, you couldn’t tell me that wasn’t a big grin. And he kept it and it was always there. It was very easy to smile, from the second day that he left. Until the last day I saw him, I saw that smile.
CHAKRABARTI: I know as a mom, there are things about your children that shine through, from the moment you first get to hold them, just like aspects of who they are, which, you know, this is your soul speaking to me. So tell me what else about Seven you just knew about him from the start.
CHARLES: Compassion. That little guy was very compassionate. He loved people. He loved serving. He was very thought-conscious about the next person. And I want to blame that on his nurture at home from his father and I. But it was just something that was innate about him. He always and often and a lot of adults, of course, always mentioned how he was always so willing to run up to them and give them a hug or ask them how they are. The compassionate component was probably the biggest part of it. He cared, genuinely cared about things, about people and about feelings.
CHAKRABARTI: Yeah. And he seems that he cared about people even when they necessarily didn’t show him that care back, right?
CHARLES: Absolutely.
CHAKRABARTI: Yeah. You want to tell me a little bit about that?
CHARLES: Absolutely. Seven was one who accepted everyone. He was that kid that played with everyone on the playground. He talked to everybody. He never had any cliques or any groups that he would associate with. And then he would also come into defense of the ones that were shunned in some way or another. He also was able
