PAHO reports 38% rise in youth suicide rates across the Americas

Uruguay reports fewer deaths but records thousands of attempts

A Pan American Health Organization study published in May in The Lancet Regional Health - Americas found that 18,157 people ages 10 to 24 died by suicide across the Americas in 2021. The suicide rate for that age group rose 38% between 2000 and 2021, from 5.7 to 7.84 deaths per 100,000, with the fastest increases among females and children ages 10 to 14. Suicide was the third leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 24 across the Americas.

PAHO Director Jarbas Barbosa called the gap between that 38% rise and the 17% increase in the overall population a warning sign. Renato Oliveira e Souza, who heads PAHO’s Mental Health and Substance Use Unit, said the trend requires earlier detection and stronger interventions in schools and communities. The study covered North America as well as Latin America and the Caribbean. It found that North America had the highest rates and fastest growth, while youth suicide rates in Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay rank among the highest in the world and are still rising.

PAHO’s age-standardized estimates for 2021, which differ from national registry figures, put Guyana at 26.4 suicide deaths per 100,000 people, Suriname at 22.4 and Uruguay at 22.0. About 100,760 people died by suicide across the Americas that year, and the regional rate rose 17% between 2000 and 2021, according to PAHO’s latest regional report, published in September 2025.

In July, Uruguay’s Ministry of Public Health reported 668 suicide deaths in 2025, a rate of 19.16 per 100,000. That was down from 764 deaths in 2024, and the rate was the country’s lowest since 2015. The same report recorded 6,140 suicide attempts by 5,144 people. The ministry urged caution when interpreting a single year’s decline. Health Minister Cristina Lustemberg said prevention requires a response that goes beyond the health system.

Nibia Pizzo considered the COVID-19 pandemic to have deepened the problem. PAHO’s High-Level Commission on Mental Health and COVID-19 estimated that in 2020 the prevalence of major depressive disorder in Latin America and the Caribbean rose 35%, while the prevalence of anxiety disorders rose 32%. PAHO characterized public spending as insufficient and cited WHO’s Mental Health Atlas 2024, which put median mental health spending at 2.1% of health budgets across the Americas. Of that funding, 42% went to psychiatric hospitals rather than community-based services.

Pizzo cited WHO’s 1946 constitution, which defines health as complete physical, mental and social well-being rather than merely the absence of disease. She organizes mental health into five connected dimensions — cognitive, emotional, social, existential and functional — covering clear thinking, emotion management, trusting relationships, meaning and purpose, and the demands of daily life. Pizzo said difficulty in one dimension affects the others, especially during adolescence when identity is still forming. In her view, care that overlooks a young person’s need for belonging and purpose remains incomplete.

Pizzo said clinics alone cannot build those capacities and noted that families, schools and, for many young people, faith communities have historically done much of that work. She said research supports giving family relationships particular attention. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis in The Lancet Psychiatry, covering 38 studies of more than 100,000 children and adolescents, found that negative parenting practices and family dysfunction were associated with a higher later risk of certain forms of self-harm and suicidal thoughts or behaviors. Most of the studies were conducted in the United States and China, not Latin America.

Pizzo said the review does not make parents responsible for every difficulty their children face. She said it examined how families relate, not how they are structured, and argued that attention should focus on those relationships rather than on family structure. Families also contend with pressures they cannot fully control, she said.

WHO’s adolescent mental health fact sheet, updated in September 2025, lists media influence and harsh parenting among the risks young people face. It stresses supportive environments at home, at school and in the wider community. The guidance calls for avoiding institutionalization and over-medication, prioritizing non-pharmacological approaches and respecting children’s rights. It also says professional treatment, including medication when clinically appropriate, remains necessary. WHO recognizes that adolescents need care that extends beyond the consulting room, and the joint WHO-UNICEF Helping Adolescents Thrive initiative builds on that beyond-the-clinic approach by supporting policies and programs that promote adolescent mental health and help prevent self-harm.

During Inter-American Mental Health Week, Oct. 5-9, PAHO and the Organization of American States called for stronger action across government. More than 185 million people in the Americas live with a mental health condition, according to PAHO. In June, the OAS General Assembly, meeting in Panama City, adopted a declaration recognizing mental health as fundamental to human development and calling for intersectoral, whole-of-government responses. In her UPI opinion essay, psychologist Nibia Pizzo wrote that young people are where that commitment will be tested.

The Panama declaration and Uruguay’s National Mental Health and Well-being Strategy 2025-2030 recognize the need for action across sectors. Pizzo said the test is whether governments turn those commitments into funded programs with measurable results.

Pizzo’s recommendations include expanding family- and school-based prevention, including parenting support and programs modeled on Helping Adolescents Thrive, alongside timely clinical care. She also calls for training school staff to recognize warning signs and refer students quickly. Following WHO’s LIVE LIFE suicide-prevention guidance would mean limiting access to lethal means. Governments should publish their results and invest in long-term research on Latin American adolescents, Pizzo said.

Young people in distress need professional care, adults they can trust and a reason to look ahead, Pizzo said. She said mental health services can respond to a crisis, but preventing the next one depends on the relationships surrounding every adolescent and on whether governments treat those relationships as part of public health.

Nibia Pizzo is a psychologist with a master’s degree in management and development of social impact projects. She specializes in severe mental illness and drug misuse and is academic director of Legacy of the Americas, a project of the Global Peace Foundation. She said the views expressed are solely hers.