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Secure Treatment Facilities Should Exist for the Rehabilitation of Children
Instead, they are holding tanks for children who have nowhere to go
North Carolina’s mental healthcare system is falling apart. Or perhaps, it would be better said that the system was never particularly well held-together in the first place.
In a state that held out on expanding Medicaid until 2023, I suppose that the level of chaos is unsurprising at best and completely expected at worst.
Unfortunately, the holes in the mental healthcare system fail North Carolina’s most vulnerable residents and result in overuse of crisis resources such as emergency rooms that are already bursting at the seams.
As a former resident of New York, I was initially overwhelmed by the state of mental healthcare services in my new home. While I cannot claim that the healthcare system in New York is anywhere near perfect, I now recognize that I took a certain threshold of services and care for granted…both for myself and for the individuals I served.
I plunged headfirst into the chaos of North Carolina’s mental healthcare system in early 2023 when I accepted a position at a secure treatment facility for children and adolescents.
