A look at treatment for suicidal teens

Tammy Aaberg
Tammy Aaberg holds up a photo of her son Justin that was taken just before prom this past spring. Justin, 15, killed himself on July 9, 2010. Tammy says her son's sexual orientation made him the target of harassment.
MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel

A new survey of 6,500 American teenagers found that 1 in 25 had attempted suicide, and 1 in 8 had suicidal thoughts.

"The study, in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found that 55 percent of suicidal teenagers had received some therapy before they thought about suicide, planned it or tried to kill themselves, contradicting the widely held belief that suicide is due in part to a lack of access to treatment," wrote Benedict Carey in The New York Times.

We'll examine the results of the survey and some of the issues with preventing teenage suicide.