Ridout KK, Alavi M, Ridout SJ, et al. - Researchers sought to characterize if and how suicide-related ED encounters have changed at population-level and determine the relative change in these encounters among youth during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with 2019.

• ED encounters in 2019 and 2020 at Kaiser Permanente Northern California were evaluated in this cross-sectional study.

• Findings revealed comparable incidence rates of suicide-related emergency department encounters among youth in 2020 vs 2019 incidence rates except for a decline in March to May 2020 vs the same period in 2019 and a rise among girls in June through December 2020 vs the same period in 2019.

• In September to December 2020, more visits were recorded for youth with no previously documented mental health treatment compared with this period in 2019.

• Overall findings suggest a possible worsening of mental health for some groups of youth because of the COVID-19 pandemic.