What happens when a mentally ill student threatens classmates?
For one Tri-Cities family, it took years of desperately searching for help and direct intervention from the Washington governor’s office to get the care he needed.
In that time the teen, now almost 16, was arrested over and over, hospitalized multiple times and failed to get help from treatment facilities that couldn’t manage the level of care he needed.
His mother says she worries every day that he might hurt himself or someone else.
The teen told the Herald he doesn’t think about the future — it’s pointless. And while he’s open to help, the system has let him down too many times.
He and his mom met recently with the Tri-City Herald to talk about his struggles and their frustrations with a dysfunctional system.
The Herald agreed not to use their names so they felt free to share their story and shed light on the critical need for better youth mental healthcare in the Tri-Cities and the state.
“This mental health system is broken for adults and much more for the youth,” his mother said.