That is one story. There are others where it does work out, and learning some coping skills from inpatient was the start of healing. There are yet other stories where the inpatient program identifies a medical problem underlying the suicidal thoughts and they get on meds, figure out how to cope, and end up living a productive life.

Our system does work for some people. But it is frustrating and fails others. If anyone wants to build a better one, please do.

We need more answers, more options, and more help. ERs are definitely not the answer. The fact that a local family doc can fly someone to a trauma center on a helicopter for a life-threatening physical problem in a matter of minutes, while an equally life-threatening mental problem requires weeks or months of wait lists is a huge freaking problem. We absolutely should be looking for better answers. In the meantime, we do the best we can with what we have to try to save the lives of our children. We all hope for something better in the long run, but I at least appreciate that articles like this are exposing the problems.