A Los Angeles children's hospital is meeting demand for pediatric mental health care with a workforce most families do not think of first: more than 100 medical and psychiatric social workers providing coverage around the clock.
Sandy Himmelrich, a licensed clinical social worker who serves as executive director of clinical support and care coordination and co-director of the Behavioral Health Institute at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, oversees a team spanning virtually all inpatient and outpatient settings. She points to rising demand driven by cost-of-living pressure, caregiver burnout, health care insecurity and communication challenges between families and providers, and argues that medical social workers have long been doing behavioral health work without being counted as behavioral health practitioners.
