A 6-year-old tried to hang himself before he got help. This is Iowa's mental health crisis
The story was originally published by The Des Moines Register with support from our 2024 Data Fellowship.
Bailey Prieve with medical documents from her son's care.
Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register
Two years ago, Bailey Prieve’s son was beyond his breaking point.
The then-6-year-old Urbandale child, struggling with a half-dozen diagnoses that include post-traumatic stress and mood disorders, had been increasingly aggressive toward his family over the past year.
By fall 2022, Prieve and her husband resorted to locking themselves in bedrooms or their cars to separate themselves from his violent outbursts. One day, after an incident at football practice, Prieve said her son came home upset and stormed into his room.
She went upstairs to check on him a few minutes later and found him with a bungee cord around his neck, trying to hang himself from his loft bed.
“Had I waited five more minutes to come up and check on him, we wouldn't have him here with us,” Prieve said.
“You see what people struggle through,” she said. “Once you see mental health at its worst … you look at things differently, and you see they didn't get help. The system failed us. They failed them.”