After a 13-year-old spent weeks living in a Longmont emergency room, questions have arisen about just how often children are left in less than ideal situations due to a lack of state resources.
An email thread obtained by the Longmont Leader through an open records request described a boy with autism brought to UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital’s emergency department and abandoned by his father in early June.
Despite several attempts to work with several local and state agencies, the boy remained living at the emergency room for at least three weeks. It could not be confirmed Thursday whether the boy had found a secure placement.
In the email thread, the director of Boulder County Family and Children Services, Mollie Warren, said a severe lack of statewide resources can lead to children staying in less than ideal places — like emergency rooms, child welfare offices or detention centers — while waiting for behavioral health support.
According to Khari Hunt, deputy director of prevention, protection and partnerships for Boulder County Housing and Human Services, children in need of behavioral health support being left in extended stays at hospitals, child welfare offices or detention centers happens infrequently. However, Hunt said the office is seeing it happen more often in recent years.
“This behavioral health/high acuity crisis has plagued us for many years, however it appears to have been made worse more recently in the last four to five years by other community stressors, such as the pandemic, economic pressures, substance use issues and other community de-stabilizing factors,” Hunt said. “These stressors are creating challenges for many families who may not have struggled previously, and are worsening circumstances for others that were already struggling.”
Hunt emphasized that the department works hard to get young people in these types of difficult situations the resources they need and find them safe and stable placements.
“Situations like what you describe are almost always much more complex than they appear to be, and depending on the circumstance, some placements can be extremely difficult to make,” Hunt said. “In all scenarios, we exhaust all options every day until we can find a solution.”
A 2020 report from the Colorado Department of Human Services found that Boulder County was short 28 caseworkers and supervisors in human services. Statewide, counties needed an additional 346 caseworkers and 65 supervisors at that time.
“The lack of services — and beds — for people experiencing mental health emergencies isn't limited to Boulder County,” Hunt said. “This shortage needs to be addressed all over Colorado and across the nation. We continue to advocate for an increase in services for people in mental and behavioral health crises and we are eager to see much more attention, collaboration and resources dedicated to this effort.”
Warren shared these concerns at the initial Legislative Child Welfare Interim Committee meeting on June 29. County departments of human services presented to a legislative committee, with their materials requesting things like funding for community-based prevention and early intervention, services for youth with the most complex needs and fully funding the new child welfare funding model.
“More services and more places to sleep for people suffering from mental and behavioral health emergencies would help tremendously, as would increased investments in sustaining these services and supports,” Hunt said of what is needed to avoid these types of situations.