Pandemic, racism compound worries about Black suicide rate

Jasmin Pierre was 18 when she tried to end her life, overdosing on whatever pills she could find. Years of therapy brought progress, but the 31-year-old Black woman's journey is now complicated by a combination of stressors hitting simultaneously: isolation during the pandemic, a shortage of mental health care providers and racial trauma inflicted by repeated police killings of Black people. “Black people who already go through mental health issues, we’re even more triggered,” said Pierre, who lives in New Orleans.