HARTFORD, Conn. — It’s not a surge of COVID-19 patients that professionals at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) are dealing with right now. Instead, their challenges have been from the influx of children in need of urgent psychiatric help.
CCMC president and CEO Jim Shmerling largely blamed the stresses of COVID-19.
“Children through COVID-19 have been isolated, they haven’t been able to go to school," Shmerling said. “They need that socialization and second, many of these kids have had parents laid off or furloughed and that puts additional stress on the family.”
As a result, CCMC mental health professionals are in greater demand than ever before, according to Shmerling.
However, there is only so much space to accommodate children and families in need.
“We’ve moved people around so we can expand space for behavioral health, and we have hired over one hundred more people to help with these children, but the numbers keep growing and there isn’t enough space or staff to keep up.”
The hospital has now looked to the State for help and other hospitals willing to open their doors to accommodate kids – especially older teenagers – in need.
“It’s a team effort, so we’ve gone to the state and the Department of Public Health has been extremely responsive,” Shmerling added. “The hospitals are coming to together to say how can we help and it’s really a public-private partnership. We are all focusing on what we can do for the children.”
Connecticut Children’s said they have plans to build a unit with 15 more beds that would be dedicated to children in need of urgent mental health assistance.
That unit is expected to be launched in the next year to 18 months.
Jimmy Altman is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at jaltman@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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