Suicide attempts are rising and emergency room visits for mental health crises were up 90% last month. Mental health experts are asking for help. Colo

Children’s Hospital Colorado declares mental health state of emergency as suicide attempts rise

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2021-05-25 20:00:06

Suicide attempts are rising and emergency room visits for mental health crises were up 90% last month. Mental health experts are asking for help.

Colorado children are attempting suicide and arriving in emergency rooms in psychiatric crisis at levels never seen in this state, while abuse of alcohol and drugs to cope with mental health struggles is also on the rise.

The youth mental health crisis has escalated to the point this spring that hospital beds are full and more parents are sending kids out of state for treatment, according to a Children’s Hospital Colorado panel of experts who sent up a flare for help Tuesday.

The hospital system, with a main campus in Aurora as well as branches in Colorado Springs, Highlands Ranch and Broomfield, declared a “pediatric mental health state of emergency.”

In Aurora, the hospital’s 40-bed emergency department has been overrun with children in psychiatric crisis. Mental health emergency visits were up 90% last month compared with April 2019. The hospital’s transport team is seeing three or four kids each week who have just tried to kill themselves.