He wanted a career that allowed him to help children as much as possible by prescribing meds and providing therapy. “When you can’t make sense of your despair, I can make sense,” says Bender, who has won several teaching and clinical-care awards. And, hopefully, help parents do so, too.”As he talked, more children were waiting at the hospital’s Psychiatric Emergency Services, six floors below. Most teenagers who experience suicidal thoughts don’t need to be hospitalized and most don’t kill themselves (about 2,800 did in 2021). “Ignore the social and family context at your peril,” says Brent, who has tracked the rise in adolescent suicide for years.

---