Idaho's suicide rate is over twice the national average. Idaho ranks third in the nation for teenage suicide. Children with an excess of psychological problems and a shortage of financial support get lost in the cracks of Idaho's mental health care program. As they grow up, these young people are at risk of ending up in jail, on drugs, dead by suicide, or living on the streets because of inadequate programs and facilities to help them.
Experts are appalled at Idaho's track record in dealing with mental illness.
Idaho ranks 49th in the United States in the care of serious mental illness. According to a leading mental illness publication, the prospects for Idaho's mentally ill is shocking. Common manifestations include depression, drug abuse, disabling anxiety disorders such as schizophrenia. The grim inadequacies of current programs for SED children, compounded with the financial impossibilities of disadvantaged children accessing treatment, presents a problem that demands our immediate attention. As prison rolls continue to explode, and government efforts remain complacent, community alternatives to expand inpatient treatment must be pursued.