A friend of mine has a friend who is depressed and suicidal, has told this friend's mother but she refuses to acknowledge or believe it. What can we do?

Hello Reddit.

I'm actually here on behalf of my friend, we shall name her Erika, because she's in a little bit of a bind. She is a senior in high school and is friends with a freshman who we shall name Rico.

Essentially Erika and Rico have been talking for about two months (Not dating; Erika has a boyfriend) and after about two weeks he started divulging that he has been having suicidal thoughts and was generally extremely depressed. She's been trying to talk him through it, but it hasn't gone too well (Well he hasn't attempted suicide, which is good, but you know what I mean). He seems to be getting someone serious, and she did what she believed she should do in letting his mother know about it so that she could get him some help if it was truly needed.

For one reason or another, Rico's mother does not like Erika. She believes it could be the age difference, but regardless, she doesn't like her. She basically played it off like she was joking when Erika told her of Rico's mentality, and hasn't done a single thing about it.

We're worried that Rico might harm himself and are afraid that his parents won't seek help because they aren't taking the situation seriously. I have a small feeling he's just looking for attention given his age and that I don't really know him, but I really don't want to be wrong and have something bad happen.

What should we/Erika do next? Should she try to talk to Rico's mother again, and try to suggest that he seek counseling?