As experts continue to ring the alarm about a youth mental health crisis, some advocates say California is in dire need of a new level of care.
Mental health experts say struggling youth often face a revolving door of short emergency room stays. After discharge, oftentimes it's left up to parents to monitor children who are at risk of harming themselves or others around the clock., a bill that would pave the way for children’s psychiatric residential treatment facilities, a sort of middle ground between in-patient hospitalization and home.
The types of treatment facilities outlined in the bill don’t currently exist in California because the proper licensing doesn’t exist, said , and AB2317 would change that. Adrienne Shilton, director of public policy at the California Alliance, said the bill would create a licensing framework for new treatment facilities with rooms that look like normal bedrooms in a house and could serve as an alternative to youth up to age 21 in a behavioral health crisis. The language of the bill is flexible on whether or not the facilities are locked or unlocked.
Jennifer Rexroad, executive director of the California Alliance of Caregivers, said many families are forced to send their young people out of state for residential treatment programs and she’s seen parents who have had to monitor a child in distress round the clock for days eventually break down. “They physically couldn’t do it anymore,” she said.
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