In 2008, 8.1 percent of youth ages 12 to 17 and 8.7 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 had at least one depressive episode. In addition, six percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 5.4 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds had at least one major depressive episode with severe impairment.⁵ Suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth between the ages of 10 and 24, resulting in 4,513 deaths in 2008.⁶ Further, in a survey of private and public high school students,

• 13.8 percent reported that they had seriously considered attempting suicide;
• 10.9 percent had made a plan for how they would attempt suicide;
• 6.3 percent reported that they had attempted suicide one or more times within the past year; and
• 1.9 percent had made a suicide attempt that resulted in an injury, poisoning, or an overdose that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse.⁷

Youth receive treatment for mental health in a variety of settings. In 2008,

• 12.7 percent of youths aged 12 to 17 received treatment or counseling for problems with behavior or emotions in a specialty mental health setting (inpatient or outpatient care);
• 11.8 percent of youths received services in an education setting;
• 2.9 percent received mental health services in a general medical setting in the past 12 months; and
• 5.3 percent of youth received mental health services from both a specialty setting and either an education or a general medical setting (i.e., care from multiple settings).⁸

While some youth received treatment, approximately 75-80 percent of children and youth do not receive the specialty mental health services and supports they need.⁹ Learn more about treatment for mental health issues.

Youth from low-income households are at increased risk for mental health disorders:

• Twenty-one percent of low-income children and youth ages 6 to 17 have mental health disorders.¹⁰
• Fifty-seven percent of these low-income children and youth come from households with incomes at or below the federal poverty level.¹¹

Youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems are at even higher risk for having a mental health disorder:

• Fifty percent of children and youth in the child welfare system have mental health disorders.¹²
• Sixty-seven to seventy percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have a diagnosable mental health disorder.¹³
• The risk for mental health problems, especially traumatic stress, is greatly increased for children who are living in foster care as a result of abuse and neglect. Children often suffer from traumatic stress after experiencing or witnessing the injury or death of someone else, or otherwise feeling seriously threatened.¹⁴

Youth of color experience disparities in prevalence and treatment for mental health issues:

• Eighty-eight percent of Latino children and youth have unmet mental health needs, compared to 77 percent for African-Americans and 76 percent for white children and youth.¹⁵
• Thirty-one percent of white children and youth receive mental health services compared to thirteen percent of children of color.¹⁶
• Twenty percent of female Latino high school students seriously considered attempting suicide and 15.4 percent made a suicide plan, compared to 16.1 percent of white female high school students who considered it and 12.3 percent who made a suicide plan.¹⁷