A Mandurah mother whose 15-year-old son took his own life four days ago has bravely spoken out, in the hope it will spare other families the devastating pain of suicide.
Aaron Smart’s life support was turned off on Tuesday, with family and friends by his bedside.
“You're supposed to leave the hospital with your baby, not leave them there,” mum Kiri told 7NEWS, fighting back tears.
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READ NOWAaron’s mum has spoken out in the hope her grief won’t be shared by other Mandurah families.
“If we can save just one kid, then fabulous, but we need to do more than that,” she said.
“There’s children that came to the hospital and their parents told me they are suffering from depression and they are frightened.”
The Peel region was granted a Headspace counselling service after a spate of teen suicides several years ago.
In just 11 months - 225 young people have sought help from Headspace with the numbers only expected to rise.
Aaron’s mum says she first noticed a change in her son when he started smoking marijuana, and she has called for schools to do more.
“I said to the school why can't you get sniffer dogs in, they said it was an invasion of privacy,” she said.
“These are our kids! These are our kids and it's a big problem in Mandurah.”
If you need support - Lifeline is available 24 hours a day on 13 11 14.