Doctors, lawmakers, advocates say emergency rooms are no place for kids to stay
Children having mental health crises often end up in hospital emergency rooms for weeks at a time, and now doctors and legislators want to change this. Author: Don Carrigan Updated: 2:24 PM EST February 12, 2021
AUGUSTA, Maine Maine health care leaders, doctors, and Legislators say they need to find new ways to help children having behavioral or mental health crises because too often they’re ending up in hospital emergency rooms for weeks.
The problem, said Rep. Jay McCreight (D-Harpswell), is that children and teens who have had violent outbursts end up in emergency rooms because parents or even police have nowhere else to take them. And even after they are stabilized in the ER, it can take weeks to find another place for them meaning those young people stay in the emergency rooms for weeks, or even months.