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t m c » p u l s e | m a y 2 0 1 5 6 "There are only a few hospitals in the area that can provide inpatient care for children and adolescents, but sometimes beds are not available and they can be very expensive," Williams explained. Even with good insurance, medications can be pricey and not all care is reimbursed. The Menninger Clinic, ranked among the nation's top five psychi- atric hospitals, is an ideal inpatient option for adolescents ages 12 to 17 dealing with complex and co-occurring mental illnesses in need of a long-term treatment program. While they do have charity beds available for those who qualify, general treatment can be costly It is also the only hospital in Houston with a psychiatric emergency room open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Still, it does not have pediatric inpatient psychiatric care built into its infrastructure. So what happens when an uninsured child comes through their emergency room in need of hospital- ization and all 20 beds at Harris County Psychiatric Center are full? "It occurs far too often," Shah explained. "You see a patient on a Thursday or Friday and you want to admit them because they're suicidal. I had a patient just recently who came in because she'd overdosed on two bottles of medicine and she needed to be admitted. She had no insurance so our transfer center called Harris County Psychiatric Center and they were full. So what do you do? Where do you keep them until a bed becomes available? Over the weekend, Harris County Psychiatric Center isn't discharging patients usually, so she stays on a stretcher for observation for four or five days until a bed opens up. She is consulted by one of our psychiatrists during this time, but her treatment is delayed. Would you like that for your loved ones?" Shah explained that it's an issue the whole community needs to address. "We need to do something about it," he said. "Even if you do have insurance, the number of beds is minimal." and their 16-bed unit usually has a wait ing list—all common obstacles parents face when seeking inpatient treatment at facilities throughout Houston. Patients who do not have insurance or who cannot self-pay will be referred to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Harris County Psychiatric Center, but resources are extremely limited and they are often full as well. "It makes me choke every time I think about it," said Asim Shah, M.D., chief of Psychiatry at Ben Taub Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine, who also manages the clinical behav- ioral health programs for Harris Health System. "For the entire city of Houston, there are only 20 beds for children and adolescents who are uninsured, out of which only four are for children under the age of 12. I just can't swallow that." It's a problem Shah is forced to face often. Owned and operated by Harris Health System, Ben Taub proudly serves as a safety-net hospital for the city of Houston and Harris County, treating any individual in need of care regardless of insurance or immigra- tion status. It is considered one of the best public health systems in the state and is staffed by physicians from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine, two of the nation's top medical schools. 1 in 5 children, either currently or at some point during their life, have had a seriously debilitating mental health disorder. 1 Suicide is the second leading cause of death in youth ages 15 to 24. 2 More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. 3 INJURY SUICIDE HOMOCIDE HEART DISEASE AIDS CANCER INFLUENZA BIRTH DEFECTS STROKE PNEUMONIA CHRONIC LUNG DISEASE SUICIDE (Source: 1. National Institute of Mental Health, 2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3. National Alliance on Mental Illness)

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