A quarter of all mental health emergency room visits in Colorado are now made by children younger than 18, according to a new study.Read Full Article
According to the study by The Center for Improving Value in Health Care - the visits are mostly for major depressive disorder, along with anxiety and panic disorders.
"(It's) not surprising to me that there is a demand for care," said Vincent Atchity, President and CEO of Mental Health Colorado. "That’s in keeping with the overall sense of crisis that we have around mental health around Colorado."
According to United Health Foundation, Colorado now has the sixth highest child suicide rate in the country and like many other states, a lack of mental health resources.
"We have been trained pretty well as a community that we should have a primary care provider, with whom we have a relationship and that should be our first call when we’ve got a health distress," Atchity said. "But that has not been carefully tied to also being there for your mental health needs. It should be."