In February, the Trump administration once again set a commission to Mac America, aimed at “Assess the risk posed by prescriptions of selective serotonin reptics, anti -cytotics, mood stabilizer, mood stabilizer, mood stabilizer, [and] Motivations. “If we really want to help US children face psychological crises, the last thing we need is to spread the fear of well -researched, reasonable medicines. Anti -depressants. Instead, we need to improve access to pediatric mental health treatment. We have to make sure that children will not spend any more psychiatric care needs Days or weeks In an emergency room, waiting for help.
As a pediatric emergency therapist, I regularly see weak children and adolescents struggling with suicide, humanitarian ideas, or severe behavior, until the emergency departments spend a long time waiting for a long time, even a patient’s bed is available at a center.
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This wait – is known as the Emergency Department “Boarding“Stay surprisingly TallSometimes even days or weeks. Stuck in their rooms, these children and young people are forced to sit and wait – if they are fortunate enough to have a room. Often, when no rooms are available, they ride beds in hospital halls.
Boarding is quite the opposite of the need for these children. Under the hospital’s fluorescent lighting throughout the day, stuck in bed in a noisy room or hallway, these children face more stress, dissatisfaction, fear and distrust on the system. Even worse is that these conditions can lead to one Vicious dizziness Increasing behaviors, increasing the use of drugs, prolonged stay, and sometimes physical restrictions also result in psychological trauma. Ironically, children with the biggest necessities often ride on it The longest Because they need treatment, which can provide many treatment centers.
As a society, we force children to tolerate these conditions every day because we do not have good powers.
Clearly, emergency departments or their staff are not accused. Emergency departments will have to make our pieces Broken health care system By providing a safe place for children unless more special care is available. My fellow workers work hard to provide these children and adolescents despite these horrific conditions. Our emergency departments are a safety net, but the volume of the needy children is a very small and unpredictable. Our health system is suffering from severe shortage of proper prevention, short -term and long -term treatment options for children suffering from mental illnesses. Unless more treatment beds are available, children with crisis and adolescents will continue without ongoing treatment, which they need to stabilize their mental health.
These are not extremely or unusual. Today, One of seven children Diagnostic is a state of mental or behavioral. For children who are caught in the emergency department or an observation unit, the long -long tall long tall long long between lengths Three and four days. Instead of increasing services for children, many states were trapped with stagnation or shrinking options, rather than increasing services for children. In a report of 2023 it has been shown 30 states Patients’ psychiatric beds have been reported for patients of any age. Especially for children, 89 % Of the available psychological beds, located in urban areas, which in rural areas give a huge burden on families that children need to take care of patients.
Many fronts will be needed to solve the problem of pediatric boarding. First of all, we need more available locations to care for patients with patients. The coverage of children facing mental health crises will need to be increased to make this viable, private insurance and public insurance (medical) equally.
In addition, we need more resources based on a community -based community providing mental health treatment for children before emergencies or patients need care for patients. We need other physicians, psychologists, highly outpatient programs and crisis -to -crisis response teams, in addition to other treatment for external patients. Such resources can help children get their mental health needs before reaching the location, which requires treatment for patients. Thankfully, many emergency departments are also expanded to this Resource They offer for children who are boarding, such as trained behavior health nurses and social workers and children’s life experts.
Until then, those of us who work in the emergency department will continue to do their best, knowing that sometimes, we can be the only hope for the children who have lost their care.
Dr. Alexis Cardone is a Certified emergency physician from the Board at Yel New Health Health and is the public voice of the Opened Project.
The author’s own views in this article are the author’s own.
