Depression left untreated
Children and adolescents that are depressed often do not
show noticeable signs and rarely talk to someone about their
depression, leading it to be harder to indicate. In the worst
scenario not treating a teen or child for depression can lead to
death. In Washington suicide is now ranked second on most
leading cause of death amongst children and teens. The 2010
Washington Healthy Youth Survey showed that 15,000 tenth
graders seriously thought about attempting suicide, while
about 6,000 students reported making a suicide attempt.
Responses from sixth graders showed 14 percent seriously
considered killing themselves, while five percent had tried to
kill themselves. In the same year, it was recorded that there
were nearly twice as many suicides as homicides of youth
between the age of 10-24 (Washington State Department of
Health, 2010).