Too many kids in mental health crisis aren’t getting the help they need

At least once a week, a child in mental health crisis shows up at St. Bernard Hospital’s ER. The South Side hospital has no psychiatric beds for kids. (Manuel Martinez / WBEZ)

There is no shortage of data on the severity of the mental health crisis that now affects American children.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report from February revealed that nearly 60% of teen girls felt sad or hopeless in 2021, and more than half of LGBQ+ students had recently struggled with poor mental health.