Psychiatric Treatment

Commonly known as PRTFs, these facilities offer inpatient treatment for children with complex behavioral health needs. When one of these patients gets angry or agitated, staff will often put them in restraints or isolation rooms.

Disability Rights NC spent a year investigating the state’s overuse of the legal procedure, which leaves patients locked up at a high cost with few rights.

Advocates say North Carolina's mental health care system would improve by providing more care in community and home-based settings. But an "institutional bias" in the state means that likely won't happen for years, or even decades.

A firsthand account of life inside psychiatric residential treatment facilities reveals how these care centers can do more harm than good.

A WUNC investigation into the state's two-dozen psychiatric residential treatment facilities finds dozens of examples of neglect or abuse of children with severe mental and behavioral health needs.

North Carolina would need to increase the number of beds at its psychiatric hospital in Butner by 165 percent to get the waiting list down to one…