KGMI News
BLAINE, Wash. – Results from the 2016 Healthy Youth Survey from the Washington State Department of Health are out and show Blaine teens struggling with mental health issues at especially high rates.
The Northern Light reports in the survey, between 8.6 and 13.6 percent of Blaine students in grades 8,10, and 12 reported they had tried to kill themselves in the past year.
30 percent of 12th graders reported considering suicide in 2016, compared with 20 percent of respondents statewide.
Joe Fuller, Program Specialist for the Whatcom County Health and Human Services Department, told the paper that in general substance abuse, bullying, and a variety of other factors can affect rates of depression, but that feeling isolated is probably the most important factor.
The Healthy Youth Survey is an anonymous survey given to Washington students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 every other year.