Youth Mental Health Crisis and the Increasing Demands on Emergency Room Care

Concerns about adolescent mental health and substance use have increased recently, particularly in light of gun violence and the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years, many adolescents have experienced worsened emotional health, increased stress, and a lack of peer connection. June 2021, more than 40% of teenagers stated that they struggle with persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. The number of overdose deaths among youth more than doubled from 2019 to 2021. 

Despite growing need, there is inadequate behavioral health treatment services nationally and locally. Youth with severe behavioral health issues often end up languishing in emergency rooms because of a lack of appropriate treatment options. Similarly, foster children in Maryland have ended up living in unlicensed facilities like office buildings and hotels because they have nowhere else to go. 

Please join Maryland Philanthropy Network's Health and Education Funders Affinity Groups for a program on the urgent need to improve crisis response services for children, youth and families, and how local Emergency Departments are attempting to adjust to the need. The program will be examining hospitals’ roles in addressing the pediatric mental health crisis, and philanthropy's role in supporting creative solutions and advocating for change. 

Our distinguished expert speakers are:

• John Campo, MD, Johns Hopkins Medical Institute Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor and Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and Vice President of Psychiatric Services at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.
• Lauren Fitzpatrick, MD, Medical Director for the Pediatric Emergency Department and Associate Chief of the Pediatric Service for Luminis Health. 

The Baltimore Banner has written several articles about this issue, which we encourage participants to read before the program.  

Maryland kids in distress are being kept in emergency departments for weeks, months - August 2022  

Maryland foster children are being kept overnight in hotels and downtown office buildings - September 2022  

Inside the ER: Staffers overwhelmed as struggling youths languish with no solutions in sight - November 2022  

How Maryland failed families and children with complex needs - December 2022  

This program is for MPN members and invited guests only.