Mental health issues most common admission reason now at Dayton Children's
Springfield News-SunSep 28, 2022
Sep. 28—More than 900 children have been admitted to
And the children admitted to the hospital's behavioral health unit for mental health reasons often return, said
"There are so few mental health services in the community and the need is so great that right now when kids leave our behavioral unit, one in seven return in about 30 days," she said.
The Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board is working to promote better mental health throughout the community. As part of that effort, it received a
The organization is matching the grant and the money will be put toward programs to identify children who have lived through experiences that might put them at a higher risk for mental health problems, said
"This grant really gives us an opportunity to be intentional about addressing what we call 'adverse childhood experiences (ACE)' or childhood trauma," Ball said.
The Montgomery County ADAMHS board will launch ACEs Aware, an approach to improve mental health by increasing access to screenings. A child's ACE score is calculated by the number of events that child has lived through that could impact his or her mental health including being abused or neglected. Experts have found that children who have higher ACE scores are more likely to attempt suicide, have suicidal ideation or harm themselves.
"While we may not be able to prevent those traumas right here in the moment, we can use these dollars to put in some interventions to prevent any stress or any kind of health conditions that we could see come from that such as behavioral health issues (and) addiction," Ball said.
The local board was one of eight organizations chosen by the
"As we're looking at community and having so much discourse around racial equity, health equity and those pieces of this puzzle, it gives us an opportunity to really raise the volume of the conversation for a better understanding of how trauma impacts some communities differently," ADAMHS Executive Director
About 1,100 children were admitted to
"Then the kids don't know how to work through that conflict," Blankenship said. "They don't have the coping skills that allow them to help work through their feelings."
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By the Numbers
Patients admitted to
2019- 424 (unit opened in July)
2020 — 972
2021- 1,097
2022 Jan —
Source:
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