Program is Precious

Tireless is, without a doubt, the word that best describes Dr. Rosa María Gil, the creator of Life Is Precious, a suicide-prevention program for young Latinas in New York.

The program started in the Bronx in 2008, expanded to Brooklyn in 2009 and opened a center in Long Island City, Queens, last week.

“There is so much need,” said Gil, who added she was shocked by the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data about suicide among Latina adolescents in Queens. The story the federal CDC statistics tell is one of desperation and impotence.

“In Queens, more than one in five Latina teens contemplates suicide, and more than one in eight attempt it.” Gil said. “Across New York City, Latina teens who seriously considered suicide rose 3% in just the past two years, and so have attempts to kill themselves, according to the CDC. The number seriously considering and attempting suicide nearly doubled in that same time. This made opening the center in Queens much more urgent.”

The reasons for teen Latinas’ desperate thoughts and acts are complex, says Gil.

“One of them is culture shock. The mothers come from other countries, but many of the girls were born or grew up here,” she says. “Other factors like poverty, unemployment, bullying in schools, domestic and sexual violence, can aggravate depression and stress in young women.”

According to the CDC, 15.6% of young Latinas in the U.S. tried to commit suicide one or more times, more than girls from other ethnic groups, almost twice the number of young white American women. In New York, that number is more than twice that of white American girls (13.3% vs. 5.9%) and continues to rise.

Yet Life is Precious, by providing the girls with services to improve their academic performance, develop skills to deal with daily emotional challenges, discover new talents, enjoy positive family relationships, and experience improved emotional health and reduced suicidal risk behavior, has succeeded in giving back to a considerable number of Latina teens a desire to live.

“There is no other place doing this kind of work for Latina teens in the country,” Gil said.

The new Life is Precious headquarters is at 32-45 Hunters Point Ave. in Long Island City. For more information, log on to comunilife.org.