The Crisis in Numbers

The pressures of modern life—from social media to geopolitical uncertainty—have created a youth mental health crisis of an unprecedented scale.

In the United States, youth psychiatric hospitalizations have increased 124% since 2009, and suicide is now the second leading cause of death for teenagers.

And yet, youth psychiatric bed capacity has stagnated.

Where I live, in California, 26 counties have zero psychiatric beds for youth. Statewide, there are only 8 beds for every 100,000 children, far below the expert-recommended minimum of 30.

Across the nation, the US has just 15 beds per 100,000 children. Of these beds, most are concentrated in urban centers, so for thousands of kids in crisis, the closest available bed is hundreds of miles away: away from their support system, and away from their life.

Instead of receiving the help they need, thousands of kids wait hours or days in overcrowded emergency rooms, face 50% higher mortality rates, and risk future incarceration or homelessness when discharged without stabilization.

These outcomes are not rare.

Studies have shown that 67% of America’s homeless residents live with mental disorders and 45% of federal prisoners experience untreated mental illness.

Behind these numbers lies a devastating truth: most people never receive help.

Nationwide, an astonishing 80% of youth with mental health needs report being unable to access any form of treatment.

But these are not just numbers.

Behind the Numbers

These are real families watching their child deteriorate or getting handcuffed to their gurneys. These are scared parents forced to choose between unsafe discharge or sending their child across state borders. These are innocent children funneled into the juvenile justice system, castigated as “lazy” or “insane,” or lost to suicide simply because they were denied care.

I met a single mom, Denise Romero, who sat in an ER with her 13-year-old son for 42 hours, desperate for help. No one came. No bed opened. He was discharged without treatment.

The next month, he attempted suicide three times and, during a severe episode, cracked open his mother’s skull.

Denise was left begging any facility in any state to help her child. She said she was terrified for both of their lives, that her angel son had become someone she could not even recognize.

But the system didn’t just abandon her; it blamed her.

Schools dismissed her son as a lost cause. Agencies told her to just sedate him. When she knocked on neighbors’ doors, bleeding from his attacks, they slammed the door shut and said they wished she would die so her son would finally leave. Her family turned away, her friends disappeared, insurance agents demeaned her.

Everyone made her feel like a failure when she was just a mother fighting for her child’s life.

She’s not the only one. I have met parents whose daughters hurled knives at them, whose sons bit off their father’s fingers in fits of uncontrolled violence.

These are the families living on the brink of collapse because the system has no safety net or basic empathy for their children.

We cannot write these children off.

The Actions We Must Take

Every expert I have spoken with has emphasized the same point: in the thousands of kids they have treated, no matter the diagnosis or behavior, not one was a “bad kid.” They were only children in pain who needed care and treatment.

That’s why we must fight for them and for everything they have to offer.

Psychiatric beds are essential because they provide 24/7 supervision and long-term stabilization that is a prerequisite to effective outpatient care. And in the face of their shortage, we need to advocate for change at the local, state, and federal level.

What can we do?

• At the federal level, the US must:

  • expand funding for youth mental health infrastructure

  • lift the IMD exclusion for minors

  • increase early prevention efforts by educating the public and training schoolteachers and counselors to recognize early signs of a crisis

  • publish clear guidelines for parents that explain what to do, what resources exist, and how to navigate the system when their child is in crisis

  • modify reimbursement schemes to ensure psychiatric facilities are adequately compensated based on audited costs, facility type, and case complexity

• At the regional level, counties should:

  • reallocate existing funds to expand inpatient bed capacity

  • incentivize adult psychiatric facilities to become licensed to serve youth, expanding supply immediately without waiting for new facilities to be constructed

• Most importantly, we must unite and fight as a community. While interviewing a professor from India, I learned that small moments matter. He emphasized the value of simple words of affirmation and small moments of connection in preventing crises from spiraling. A Canadian psychologist highlighted the importance of speaking out, pushing for increased care to break down the stigma that surrounds mental health to this day.

More psychiatric beds will not solve everything, but not having enough makes it impossible to solve anything.

The youth mental health crisis can be reversed if we make it a priority. It can be addressed if we choose to help, to advocate for change, to lift others up rather than judge them.

Because it could just as easily be our family waiting in that ER, or any one of us as that terrified 14-year-old hearing voices.

And if it’s not, then we must fight for the ones struggling now, for those who came before, and for all the future kids who will be lost if we don’t act.