Influx in demand for pediatric mental health services has led to more children and adolescents staying in emergency departments for long periods, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 8.
Data from 38 children's hospitals, gathered by the Children's Hospital Association, found emergency department trips for mental health treatment were 20% higher in 2022 compared with 2019. Children seeking suicide or self-harm help rose 50% in the same period. Some hospitals are also seeing a surge in involuntary mental health holds for children.
Large pediatric and emergency medicine organizations issued public warnings to hospitals in August, stating the lack of space and available staff led to long wait times for pediatric psychiatric care. Many young patients are boarded at hospitals until they can find appropriate programs, some staying for weeks before finding placement. A Brown University research found children's hospital emergency departments in the Northeast saw the number of kids being boarded triple from 2019 to 2021. A JAMA Psychiatry study in July found the number of children with mental health needs being boarded for two or more nights jumped 76% from March 2019 to February 2022.
The high demand for children psychiatric services has created a backlog for all emergency patients. Wait times and the number of patients who left without care has jumped in the last two years, Emergency Department Benchmarking Alliance data found.
Demand for emergency mental health services has eased since the pandemic's peaks, Epic Systems, a medical record software company, found in an analysis of records of 1,100 hospitals, but the rates remain high.