A new study reveals suicidal and aggressive children often wait over 24 hours in ERs due to a national shortage of psychiatric beds.
United States: Children and teens in distress are waiting in frantic hospital emergency rooms for hours until a psychiatric bed becomes open, a study reveals.
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One-third of children admitted to an ER for a mental health emergency have to wait at least 12 hours to go to a mental health care institution, researchers found in the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians Open.
A record 647 kids were seen in the ER at @TexasChildrens last month for mental health. The #1 reason? Suicidal thoughts. Some as young as 9.
— Anayeli Ruiz KHOU (@AnayeliNews) May 29, 2025
I spoke with experts about what’s driving the surge and what every parent needs to know.
The story coming up on @KHOU at 10. pic.twitter.com/X8cXLO44CD
The study also found that more than 1 out of 8 patients spend more than 24 hours waiting before they receive treatment.
According to the lead researcher, Dr. Jennifer Hoffmann, who is the behavioral health medical director for emergency medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, “Our study underscores significant issues with access to mental health care for children and adolescents, who often face prolonged ED [emergency department] stays because a psychiatric bed is not available,” US News reported.
“As the youth mental health crisis continues, we have been seeing more severe psychiatric conditions in the ED,” she stated.
Adult Hospitals Struggle to Support Kids
“Most of these kids seek emergency care at adult hospitals, which often have more limited pediatric resources compared to children’s hospitals and might not be prepared to provide the necessary support,” she continued.
The researchers included more than 5.9 million mental health emergency department visits for children aged 5 to 17, which they gathered from federal surveys between 2018 and 2022.
There were about 1% of these visits in children’s hospital ERs, researchers explained.
Researchers said that about one-quarter of all trips to the ER involving a minor ended with the child being admitted or moved to receive more psychiatric help.
32% of those kids are forced to wait for at least 12 hours before a bed becomes available.
According to researchers, these kids usually act aggressively and think about suicide.
Nearly three-quarters of people who wait more than 12 hours in the ER are seeking medical attention for suicidal thoughts or behaviors, and half are for being aggressive.
Kids with private insurance were 69% less likely to stay in the ER waiting for care than kids who had Medicaid or CHIP, stated the researchers.