The suicide rate for Colorado’s older children and teens last year reached its lowest level in nearly two decades, with fewer than half as many youth taking their own lives as at the worst point, in 2020.

In May 2021, at the height of a pandemic that killed thousands of Coloradans and disrupted everything from school to sleepovers, Children’s Hospital Colorado and other health leaders rang the alarm about a youth mental health emergency in the state.

Four years later, Children’s reports that the number of youth mental health visits has largely plateaued around pre-pandemic levels, which it described as “already concerning.”

The most recent state data shows suicide rates and self-reported distress among teenagers are down from their pandemic highs — and, in some cases, lower than they ha

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