Holly Hill Hospital is hosting the grand opening of a new children's campus today. The hospital says it's working to meet a growing need for inpatient psychiatric beds that has left many in the community waiting in emergency rooms for behavioral health treatment.
North Carolina's chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness supports the creation of the facility. But the group's president, Mike Mayer, says the state has a long way to go.
“Anything that improves the availability of beds for children and youth in psychiatric crisis is a good thing,” Mayer says.
“Unfortunately, North Carolina services for children are still not what we'd like them to be.”
Mayer says that the only options for many families is to take a child in crisis to the emergency room, where they face a long wait. Then, once they're stabilized, Mayer says services are withdrawn, until the child slips back into crisis mode.
Mayer says he wants to see more health agencies work to integrate long-term care for children with behavioral issues.
