The US mental health system is in crisis because of inadequate treatment resources. The number of youths hospitalized for suicidality more than doubled during the last decade,1 and the suicide rate for 10- to 14-year-olds nearly tripled from 2007 to 2017.2 Although hospitalization is intended as a short-term stabilization setting reserved for the most acute and serious mental health problems, discharge is often delayed because of a lack of suitable step-down care such as outpatient, intensive outpatient (IOP), partial hospitalization programs (PHP), or residential psychiatric care. The availability of step-down care options differs vastly depending on region, insurance, and other factors, and the result is a subset of patients who remain hospitalized in acute inpatient units simply because of the absence of safe alternatives.
Copyright © 2020 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.