Be­tween Jan­u­ary 2024 and Feb­ru­ary 2026, 22 chil­dren un­der the age of 18 ei­ther died by sui­cide or at­tempt­ed to do so, with mid-ado­les­cents aged 15 and 16 ac­count­ing for near­ly three-quar­ters of the cas­es.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) said males ac­count­ed for 63.6 per cent of in­ci­dents and were sig­nif­i­cant­ly more like­ly to die by sui­cide than fe­males. The South­ern and Cen­tral Di­vi­sions record­ed 59 per cent of cas­es, while 2025 had the high­est num­ber over­all. Over the re­view pe­ri­od, no clear down­ward trend was ev­i­dent, sig­nalling a per­sis­tent pub­lic health con­cern.

Child psy­chol­o­gist Dr Sarah Sub­han said ado­les­cent men­tal health is com­plex and in­flu­enced by mul­ti­ple fac­tors. She ex­plained that dur­ing ado­les­cence, young peo­ple must nav­i­gate rapid­ly chang­ing ex­pec­ta­tions and de­vel­op­men­tal needs, which can wors­en ex­ist­ing, of­ten un­di­ag­nosed, men­tal health chal­lenges.