More Adolescents Seek Medical Care For Mental Health Issues
Intelligencer JournalNov 13, 2019
Less than a decade ago, the emergency department at Rady Children’s Hospital in
Now, it’s not unusual for the emergency room to see 10 psychiatric patients in a day, and sometimes even 20, said Maxwell. “What a lot of times is happening now is kids aren’t getting the care they need, until it gets to the point where it is dangerous,” he said.
ERs throughout
By comparison, the number of ER encounters among that age group for all other diagnoses grew by just 4% over the same period. And the number of ER encounters involving mental health among all other age groups — everyone except adolescents and young adults — rose by about 18%.
The spike in youth mental health visits corresponds with a recent survey that found that members of “Generation Z” — defined in the survey as people born since 1997 — are more likely than other generations to report their mental health as fair or poor. The 2018 polling, done on behalf of the
The trend corresponds with another alarming development, as well: a marked increase in suicides among teens and young adults. About 7.5 of every 100,000 young people ages 13 to 21 in
Researchers are studying the causes for the surging reports of mental distress among America’s young people. Many recent theories note that the trend parallels the rise of social media, an ever-present window on peer activities that can exacerbate adolescent insecurities and open new avenues of bullying.
“Even though this generation has been raised with social media, youth are feeling more disconnected, judged, bullied and pressured from their peers,” said
“Social media: It’s a blessing and it’s a curse,” Coats added. “Social media has brought youth together in a forum where maybe they may have felt isolated before, but it also has undermined interpersonal relationships.”
Members of Generation Z also report significant levels of stress about personal debt, housing instability and hunger, as well as mass shootings and climate change, according to the
Resources to prevent mental health crisis among youth are often lacking.
“We’re not doing a great job with … catching things before they devolve into broader problems, and we’re not doing a good job with prevention,” said Lishaun Francis, associate director of health collaborations at Children Now, an
Many
In the broader community, medical providers also are struggling to keep up. “Many times there aren’t psychiatric beds available for kids in our community,” Maxwell said.
Most of the adolescents who come into the emergency room at Rady Children’s Hospital during a mental health crisis are considering suicide, have attempted suicide or have harmed themselves, said Maxwell, who is also the hospital’s medical director of inpatient psychiatry.
These patients are triaged and quickly seen by a social worker. Often, a behavioral health assistant is assigned to sit with the patients throughout their stay.
“Suicidal patients — we don’t want them to be alone at all in a busy emergency department,” Maxwell said. “So that’s a major staffing increase.”
Rady Children’s Hospital plans to open a six-bed, 24-hour psychiatric emergency department in the spring. Improving emergency care will help, Maxwell said, but a better solution would be to intervene with young people before they need an ER.
“The ED surge probably represents a failure of the system at large,” Maxwell said. “They’re ending up in the emergency department because they’re not getting the care they need, when they need it.”
This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the
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GET HELP
If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs immediate help, contact the following organizations:
* National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, suicidepreventionlifeline.org,
* 800-273-8255.
* Those who are deaf or hard of hearing can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline via TTY at 800-799-4889.
* Lancaster Crisis Intervention, 717-394-2631.
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