The numbers aren’t pretty:
About one in four Oklahomans will experience a mental illness, while only one in three of those residents will get the services they need to be well.
Three times as many people die by suicide than by homicides each year in our state.
Oklahoma had the highest suicide rate in the country among young veterans ages 18-34.
When the Oklahoma Institute for Diversity in Journalism was considering a theme for its 15th anniversary summer journalism camp this year, mental health and wellness was a topic we knew we had to tackle.
Our 13 high school students from Oklahoma and Texas were eager to find out more about the leaders and advocates trying to make a difference in this area, and those surviving the statistics.
In a week, most students wrote two stories and some wrote three, covering a breadth of topics on this theme, with accompanying photos and videos. They can be found on this website. We hope you will appreciate the work these 15 to 18-year-olds accomplished on this relevant topic.
—Yvette Walker, 2019 OIDJ director & Melanie Wilderman, 2019 OIDJ assistant director
Opening statistics from Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and Oklahoma State Department of Health.
