Neurodivergent children face special mental health risks. The new initiative seeks ways to protect them
Like many teenagers diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Jacob Schreiber was creative, empathetic and endlessly curious. He found deep satisfaction in composing music and studying astrology. He found comfort in understanding why the world worked the way it did.
His death in 2024 by suicide at the age of 19 devastated his loved ones. In their grief, the Schreiber family turned to the questions that Jake had faced throughout his life.
“He was always looking for answers,” said his mother Lori Schreiber. “Why am I different from my sisters? Why do I feel different in my mind?”
The Jake Collective, a non-profit foundation established in Schreiber’s honor, is partnering with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention on a five-year, $5 million research initiative dedicated to the mental health needs of neurodivergent children and youth.
Brown University student Jacob Schreiber died by suicide in 2024 at the age of 19.
(Courtesy of the Schreiber family)
“Neurodivergence” is an umbrella term for various conditions that affect the way a person thinks or processes information, such as autism, ADHD or dyslexia.
Although each of these conditions manifests itself in different ways, research has identified a worrying pattern: children diagnosed with autism or ADHD, in general, are at greater risk of depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions than their neurotypical peers, and to think and die by suicide.
Yet there is, so far, little evidence-based guidance for effective interventions for children whose brains work differently. Even that little information has reached the adults who are in the best position to support them in a crisis, such as parents, pediatricians and community therapists.
“Suicide in people with autism is very worrying, but we know very little,” said Dr. Paul Lipkin, a neurodevelopmental pathologist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore who is collaborating on the project. “I think people are realizing that it deserves more attention and understanding.”
The program has already begun to bring together expert panels of psychiatrists, pediatricians, neurobiologists and other researchers, as well as people who experience living with neurodevelopmental conditions and mental health challenges, said Melissa Floren Filippone, CEO of the Jake Collective.
Their first publication, expected later this year, will be a summary of the most rigorous research to date on the subject and the most important questions that still need to be answered.
Later, it will fund relevant research projects and develop educational programs for parents and teachers, said Dr. Christine Yu Moutier, chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
The project is “an exciting opportunity to begin filling the research gap,” said Jessica Schwartzman, director of the Training and Research to Empower NeuroDiversity Lab at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and assistant professor of pediatrics at USC’s Keck School of Medicine.
Schwartzman, who studies depression and anxiety disorders in neurodivergent youth and is not directly involved in this work, identified a number of important questions that the field still needs to answer: What do symptoms of future problems look like in neurodivergent children, and are they different from those of neurotypical children? What are the most effective treatments? How can providers get the information they need to understand their patients’ different emotional experiences, and provide them with the right kind of care?
“I’m very happy to see organizations at the national level addressing this gap,” said Samara Tricarico, founder of the non-profit organization Endurant Movement, which works with neurodivergent youth. Tricarico’s son Anthony he died by suicide in 2024 at the age of 16.
“He was autistic. He was loved. And we didn’t have what it took to reach him early,” he said. “It’s a glaring deficiency in the state of mental health in our country, and I’m grateful that some large, established organizations are taking on this initiative.”
Samia McCall, whose daughter Maisa, 14, who died by suicide in 2024, expressed her hope that the program will focus on efforts to help communities accept and adapt to children who are often under undue pressure to hide and conform.
“We need to fix the environment, and we need to teach children at a young age how their unique brain works, how to speak for themselves, and how to deal with and support their emotional systems. This happens mainly by training the adults around them to understand them better,” he said. “Just like ramps and elevators help everyone, reforms that ensure neurodiversity make the world more accessible to all of us.”
