PHOENIX – A new pediatric behavioral health unit in the northwest Valley aims to better address the rise in younger patients facing a crisis with mental health.
Located near 59th Avenue and Thunderbird Road in Glendale, the facility will include 12 pediatric beds on the Banner Thunderbird Medical Center campus.
Banner Health has reported a significant increase in pediatric behavioral and mental health cases at hospitals.
While this trend predates the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems to have accelerated in the past year.
Dr. Gagandeep Singh, chief medical officer for Banner Behavioral Health, reports a 40% increase in kids coming to Banner Health emergency rooms in crisis in Maricopa County.
Although psychiatry beds in the Valley have increased, the number of these beds for pediatric patients is still limited.
Banner Behavioral Health over the last few years has increased its bed count from 16 to 40 for patients over 13 years old.
However, kids under the age of 13 typically have the longest stay in the emergency department and continue to be the most underserved when it comes to mental health care.
“That’s the patient population that stays a really long time in the emergency rooms,” Dr. Singh told KTAR News 92.3 FM. “When you think about it, if you yourself were in a mental health crisis, you don’t want to be sitting in an emergency room and if it were your child, you really wouldn’t want it.”
That’s why Banner Behavioral Health opened the new facility to better cater to adolescents and treat them in a timelier manner.
Dr. Singh believes this new facility will play a vital role in the community with Banner Health’s children’s presence already on the campus offering both significant pediatric specialty care and significant psychiatry care.
He said one in five kids aged 13 to 18 years old will experience a serious mental health issue at some point in their lives, adding one-fifth of those kids actually receive any specialized care for their mental health crisis.
Those numbers coincide with suicide being the second leading cause of death for kids age 10 and older.
In addition, more teenagers and young adults die of suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza and chronic lung disease combined.