(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)
SPOKANE, Wash. -A local mother fears her young son's days are numbered. He's only in middle school, but has already been hospitalized twice with for suicidal depression. Now, she's saying we as a community do not have enough resources for mentally ill children, and she is terrified it will cost some their lives.
"I have dedicated that past 12 years of my life trying to find help for him and I can't," Julia Malcolm said. "Nobody will help him. He's terrified of himself. He's extremely intelligent. He knows that he's out of control."
Julia said her whole world revolves around protecting her son from himself.
"Mental illness came crashing down like a freight train," she said. "He was hospitalized at 10-years-old for suicidal depression."
She says her son's demons go dormant from time to time, but are always there.
"My son is becoming aggressive, he's becoming angry," she said.
Earlier this month, his mental illness landed him in the hospital for a second time.
"He talks about suicide all the time," she said. "It's in the back of his mind all the time."
She claims she's been brushed off, rejected, and bounced from resource to resource.
"They tried to make me feel better by handing me a sheet of paper with resources on it," she said. "I said I know all about these numbers. I was desperately calling these numbers."
She feels confident she's not alone in her struggle. She's speaking out in a desperate hope that it will lead to more mental health help for Spokane's youth.