Dallas team releases the latest numbers on child suicide death rates

Assembled from data from the years 2012-2016, the Dallas County Child Death Review Team has released the latest statistics on child suicide death rates in the county. The numbers revealed an alarming 79 percent increase in suicides for children ages 14-17, with 51.8 percent of those suicides completed by children between the ages of 16-17. Suicide rates for children between 2012-2015 averaged 2.4 per 100,000 while in 2016, those numbers significantly increased to 10.3 per 100,000.

“We were concerned by that spike and thought it was crucial to release these numbers as quickly as possible,” said Dr. Sushma Sharma, a member of the team and director of public and population health research at the DFW Hospital Council (DFWHC) Foundation. “We want Dallas to be a city where people have the freedom to live to their full potential. The Dallas County Child Death Review Team is an investment in saving children’s lives by spreading information that could assist families and create awareness.”

The Dallas County Child Death Review Team (CDRT) operates as an informational teacher to publicize the causes and circumstances of death among area children. The team is a multi-agency group to include businesses, government, police departments, fire departments, school districts and faith-based organizations that reviews the deaths of children 0-17 years of age in the county.

The DFWHC Foundation provides support to the CDRT through the use of its data warehouse. The team works out of Parkland Health & Hospital System’s Injury Prevention Center of Greater Dallas.

The CDRT previously released statistics on infant sleep-related deaths in April.

You can view the child suicide statistics here.

You can review the infant sleep-related deaths here.

For information, please contact Dr. Sharma at ssharma@dfwhcfoundation.org.