Support for LAist comes from
Become a sponsor
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Donate
Stay Connected

LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network.

Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen
Donate
Podcasts Take Two
Children with mental illness lack access to emergency beds
solid orange rectangular banner
()
Take Two Logo
Dec 18, 2013
Listen • 5:36
Children with mental illness lack access to emergency beds
Imagine your child is having a psychiatric emergency. You'd probably head to the nearest hospital, but in California, four out of five counties don't have any hospital beds for kids.
Fewer than 100 psychiatric inpatient beds are available for children statewide.
Fewer than 100 psychiatric inpatient beds are available for children statewide.
(
Getty Images
)

Imagine your child is having a psychiatric emergency. You'd probably head to the nearest hospital, but in California, four out of five counties don't have any hospital beds for kids.

Imagine your child is having a psychiatric emergency. You'd probably head to the nearest hospital, but in California, four out of five counties don't have any hospital beds for kids. In Southern California and the Bay Area where most of those beds exist, they're almost always full.

The California Report's Elaine Korry has the second of three stories exploring the lack of acute mental health care in the state.

CORRECTION: From the California Report: Due to a reporting error in this story on children's mental health care, we misidentified John Muir Medical Center, Concord as the hospital where Maria Ramirez's granddaughter was first taken.  In fact, she had been taken to a different facility. We regret  the error.