{"id":9599,"date":"2022-10-17T12:52:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T12:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthwatchminute.com\/?p=9599"},"modified":"2022-10-17T12:52:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T12:52:00","slug":"does-it-have-to-be-your-kid-family-calls-out-mental-health-system-after-teens-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthwatchminute.com\/?p=9599","title":{"rendered":"‘Does it have to be your kid?’ Family calls out mental health system after teen’s suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To those who loved him, Aiden Hofer Phelan-Ruden was a bright young man with an insatiable curiosity.<\/p>\n

The teenager, who lived in rural northeast Polk County, began asking questions as soon as he could talk, and never stopped, his family said. He always wanted to know more, meeting each answer with an ever more complex and interesting question.<\/p>\n

Aiden brought that curiosity to the classroom, but teachers said he had a fun side as well. He made other students laugh, and family members said he was someone who “loved being a kid.”<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had so much joy in his body, and so much pain too,\u201d said Laurie Phelan, his great-aunt.<\/p>\n

Aiden struggled with depression and anxiety. On Oct. 1, he died by suicide. He was 15.<\/p>\n

His family tried to get Aiden the help he needed, but instead, they said, they faced roadblock after roadblock in Iowa’s underfunded and under-resourced mental health system for children. That system is under greater strain in the wake of the pandemic as more children struggle with mental illness, experts say.<\/p>\n

To Aiden’s family, the problem wasn’t just the lack of acute psychiatric beds or the shortage of mental health care staff.<\/p>\n

It was also the lack of resources for school districts, which typically have no certified behavioral specialists on staff. And it was the lack of programs that can help uplift children most at risk.<\/p>\n

In a moving obituary published online last week<\/a>, family members wrote that they believe Aiden’s life was cut short “by ambivalence, powerlessness and lack of collective capacity and will to improve the lives of our most precious resources \u2014 our children.”<\/p>\n

“How many more kids die before we say, \u2018This is a problem\u2019?” Laurie Phelan told the Des Moines Register. “One more? Five more? Does it have to be your kid?”<\/p>\n

More on mental health:<\/strong>Here’s how to tell if someone has an eating disorder. And how to get them help<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Aiden struggled with bullying, father figure’s death<\/h2>\n

Aiden was raised near Farrar, on a farm that had been in the family for more than 120 years.<\/p>\n

He and his older brother, Brock, were born to parents who struggled with substance abuse and were taken in by his grandparents, Teri Phelan-Ruden and Jeff Ruden. To the boys, they were mom and dad \u2015 or as they called them, Pi and Papa.<\/p>\n

Later in life, Aiden was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, social anxiety disorder and depression. Laurie Phelan said he took medication to help alleviate some of his symptoms, but it didn’t always work.<\/p>\n

When he was a freshman at Bondurant-Farrar High School, Aiden was bullied in school, so much that his grandparents went to the school with their concerns. He received hateful messages through Snapchat and other messaging apps and was beaten up several times, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe used to be so scared that he would eat his lunch in the bathroom. It was that bad,\u201d Laurie said.<\/p>\n

Family members said he continued to receive vile messages through social media even after his death.<\/p>\n

The Bondurant-Farrar Community School District did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

As the bullying continued, Aiden began locking himself in his room and refusing to go to school.<\/p>\n

Then, Jeff Ruden, his grandfather and the only father figure he had known, died suddenly in March at the age of 56. Aiden fell deeper into depression.<\/p>\n

Aiden attempted suicide at least once before in the past year. He stayed overnight at the pediatric psychiatric ward at Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines and continued to go to counseling in the weeks that followed.<\/p>\n

His grandmother, Teri Phelan-Ruden, spoke with Aiden often and begged the teenager to tell her if he was ever in such pain that he was having suicidal thoughts, Laurie Phelan said. Aiden promised his grandmother he would go to her if he needed help.<\/p>\n

Teri Phelan-Ruden feared that these conversations and Aiden’s hour-long therapy appointments were not enough. He needed more care, she believed.<\/p>\n

She desperately tried to get Aiden into a Des Moines-based residential treatment program but was told it was at least a six-month wait for a bed. Phelan-Ruden declined to speak for this story.<\/p>\n

Aiden never got the help he needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost him in that time,\u201d said Franci Phelan, his great-aunt.<\/p>\n

More on mental health:<\/strong>Navy veteran promoting suicide prevention, troops helping out are welcome military presence on RAGBRAI<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Polk County sees spike in youth suicides over past two years<\/h2>\n

Polk County has seen an increase in youth suicides over the past two years, a pattern connected to the rising rates of depression and anxiety among children in Iowa and across the U.S. following two years of the pandemic, Polk County Medical Examiner Josh Akers said.<\/p>\n

So far in 2022, six juveniles have killed themselves. Last year, there were five.<\/p>\n

By comparison, the county recorded two youth suicides in 2020 and three in 2019.<\/p>\n

“I think that we as a nation are in the midst of a mental health crisis, and that\u2019s being manifested as suicides and overdoses,” Akers said.<\/p>\n

The 2021 Iowa Youth Survey<\/a> showed almost one in four \u2014 or 24% \u2014 of 11th graders had thought about suicide in the past year. Forty-nine percent of students who indicated they thought about ending their lives went so far as to make a plan, the survey reports.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the CDC reported<\/a> about 44% of children nationwide experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Nearly 20% had seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9% had actually attempted suicide.<\/p>\n

And like Aiden’s family, some Iowans are finding there are limited resources to meet the growing demand.<\/p>\n

According to a survey from Kaiser Family Foundation<\/a>, about 40% of respondents in Iowa had difficulty obtaining mental health care for children ages 3 to 17. That’s on track with the national average, with 43% facing some level of difficulty in obtaining services.<\/p>\n

Iowa has one of the nation’s lowest rates of child and adolescent psychologists per 100,000 residents younger than 18, according to a 2020 report from the Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center at the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n

The majority of Iowa’s 99 counties lack a child psychiatrist, according to the CDC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s estimated<\/a> half the children in the United States who have a mental health disorder don’t receive the treatment they need \u2014 a factor exacerbated by workforce shortages and increased behavioral health needs.<\/p>\n

“There are lots of Aidens all over this country \u2014 some of them we know about, and some we don\u2019t,” said Daniel Phelan, Aiden’s great-uncle. “We\u2019ve got a system which is ill prepared to be able to deal with mental health issues in this country, and unfortunately, the de facto mental health care facilities become local school districts, they become hospitals, they become police officers.<\/p>\n

“None of them are really qualified to do this work.”<\/p>\n

More:<\/strong>National three-digit suicide and mental health crisis hotline 988 begins July 16<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Aiden’s relatives say there’s not enough support around families<\/h2>\n

The need for greater access to mental health care has been a long-standing issue in Iowa. Five years ago last month, another Iowa family wrote a moving obituary<\/a> following their 18-year-old son’s suicide death, calling on lawmakers and policymakers to address the state’s inadequate mental health resources.<\/p>\n

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