Mental health treatment for youth in schools and at home has also become a national priority, with parents, teachers, and counselors receiving ongoing training. Cheryl Garland with Integrative Counseling Services tells KNIA News there is an attempt to be proactive, but the numbers on youth suicide can be alarming.

“All grades combined the number of youth who had a plan to commit suicide went from 6.6% to 10.1% in 2018. So 10% of our youth in Iowa had a plan to kill themselves in 2018. It’s an unbelievable number, it has been an overall increase of 53% since 2012 to 2018.

Garland also said a children’s mental health bill was passed by the Iowa House of Representatives, but currently it is unfunded so there is a long way to go to get this right.