Youth mental health crisis may be improving, early ER data suggests

America's youth mental health crisis appears to have shown signs of improving last fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, based on slowdowns in emergency room visits compared to the year prior.

The data is an early sign that the surge in suicide attempts and mental health conditions that filled emergency rooms with adolescent patients, many teen girls, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic might be subsiding nationwide. 

But compared to a pre-pandemic "baseline" in the fall of 2019, the CDC's report also suggests average weekly emergency room visits remained as high or worse than they were for suicide and overdoses.