Record High Death by Suicide Rates: CDC Report

Money well spent on the mental health crisis?

This is a newsletter. It is written by a psychiatrist. Not actually plural psychiatrists. I am a suicide expert, much to my chagrin.

Today, I am reporting on the update I did see coming:

A total of 49,449 Americans died by suicide in 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

This is a 2.6% increase from 48,183 in 2021 and the highest number ever recorded, according to provisional numbers released in a new report from the federal health agency.

All the investments into “solutions” for “the mental health crisis”—absent compelling data to the contrary—have this one metric calling utter and total bullshit.

Nothing we have done—objectively—has worked. More people are dead.

The irony is in the article about the topic, it advertised one of the things that—itself—is not working:

About 14% of the 23,000-plus Illinois calls made in April and May to the 988 crisis hotline were redirected to other states, per an analysis by health research outlet KFF.

Why it matters: When calls are transferred out of state, it becomes much harder for those specialists to locate nearby services for people in crisis.

We can’t address a crisis just by screaming about it being one. We can throw money at just anything and expect it to help.

If we addressed the problem of not enough gasoline for cars by filling the tank with water, and funding endless mobility hotlines, and startups to make matching platforms for the right place to fill you car with water, we would be unsurprised with the outcomes.

I’ll summarize my take—Current mental health treatment:

• Makes inaccurate diagnoses

• Prescribes wildly ineffective treatments

• Those treatments are delivered by individuals not trained meaningfully to address the problems we are facing

• We have effective treatments available.

• We refuse to pay for them as a system, instead paying for nonsense

• We refuse to respond to crisis in a way that is anything under that a failure

• We allow vampires to profit from Destroying emergency response nationally.

• And we stalk and penalize those who dare help those suffering the most.

It’s making a lot of money for private equity, VC backed children, and big health vampires. It is deeply unserious as an approach to a very, very serious problem. It’s not going to get better until we call a spade a spade. We need to, before the horror takes you too…