In 2024, 10% of 15- and 16-year-old students in Kosovo said they had attempted suicide, compared with 3.4% in 2011. The figures were presented by Dr. Zeinab Hijazi, UNICEF’s global lead for mental health, during a discussion on the mental health of children and young people in Kosovo.
Referring to the report on Kosovo, Hijazi noted that the challenges facing the country are similar to those in other countries. She described the rising number of young people reporting that they had tried to end their lives as alarming.
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The scale of the issue is global: more than 1 billion people live with a mental health condition, she said, while approximately 1 in 7 adolescents aged 10 to 19 experiences a mental disorder.
Among people aged 15 to 29, suicide ranks as the third leading cause of death globally, Hijazi emphasized. She noted that the statistics represent young people with friends, abilities and hopes for the future, as well as parents seeking help and dedicated professionals who may lack sufficient resources to provide support.
In addressing mental health, the UNICEF representative called for attention to extend beyond diagnoses. The absence of a diagnosis does not rule out serious psychological distress, she said, and a diagnosis alone does not fully describe a person’s condition.
Hijazi explained that a person with a mental health condition can experience well-being, build meaningful relationships and lead a fulfilling life. Meanwhile, an undiagnosed young person may suffer significant distress even while attending school and appearing to cope, as they discover their identity and imagine their future.
She also linked mental well-being to social and economic circumstances, stressing that psychological difficulties do not stem solely from an individual’s condition. The environments in which people grow up and live—including poverty, inequality, violence, discrimination, and a lack of belonging and opportunities—contribute to these difficulties.
According to Hijazi, these factors directly affect the foundations of well-being in every society. Their impact is amplified today by digital life, climate change and successive crises.
In response, she called for increased investment in mental health services and for collecting data to help identify people who need support.
Hijazi stressed that measuring needs must go hand in hand with assessing access to services and their outcomes: alongside the number of young people seeking help, it is important to know how many receive appropriate services and how effective those services are.
