From The Orange County Register
By Kimberly Chavalas Cripe / Contributing writer
In February, the Duchess of Cambridge made news headlines around the globe when she publicly announced support for an initiative to reduce the stigma around children suffering from mental illness. I’d like to thank her for bringing heightened awareness to this critical issue.
If a child breaks an arm, we take her to the hospital to have the bone reset. We smile as she proudly shows off her cast, a mark of courage and resilience. When the bone heals, we move on with our lives.
If a child gets cancer, we take him to an oncologist for a treatment plan. We lean on friends and family during the most trying times. We rejoice at news of remission, or we may grieve openly if the news is bad.
But when a child has a mental illness, chances are, we hide. We hesitate to tell our closest friends that our daughter has violent tantrums that scare our other children – and us. We can’t bear to reveal that our once cheerful son no longer finds joy in life and has talked about ending it all. We don’t talk about the challenge of finding community resources, the countless trips to the hospital or the long waits in the emergency department.
We can be very much afraid, and we can feel very much alone.
As president and CEO of Children’s Hospital of Orange County, I see children in need every day. Helping them heal inspires and my colleagues and me to come to work. But even I didn’t fully appreciate the magnitude of the pediatric mental health crisis until pastors Rick and Kay Warren, founders of Saddleback Church, came to me to discuss this silent epidemic. The statistics are staggering: An estimated one in five children has a diagnosable mental illness in childhood, and 50 percent of adults with mental health problems experience symptoms before age 14. Early intervention is critical, but many communities, including our own, have no beds to treat our youngest mental health patients.
The Warrens experienced these inadequacies firsthand as they tried to help their son manage severe depression beginning when he was only 7 years old. Three years ago, as a young adult, he took his own life. His death was tragic, and it sparked a new beginning for the Warrens, who are passionate about resolving the pediatric mental health crisis and reducing the stigma around mental illness so others don’t have to live through the same pain.
I left that first meeting with the Warrens resolved to make our hospital a leader in developing a comprehensive pediatric system of care that can be replicated throughout the country. We sprung to action immediately, and we are starting to see results.
In addition to expanding outpatient mental health services and hiring additional specialty staff members, including pediatric psychologists and pediatric psychiatrists, we will soon break ground on the CHOC Children’s Mental Health Inpatient Center, a safe, nurturing place for children ages 3 to 18 to receive care for mental health conditions. It will provide 18 inpatient beds and specialty programming for children younger than 12 – those who will benefit most from our help. Building the center is our boldest step to date toward addressing the drastic lack of services for children with mental illness, but it is just one part of our plan. Perhaps the more daring aspect, and the one we hope will be replicated in other areas, is the framework we are creating for addressing pediatric, teen and adolescent mental health care from every angle.
Our mental health task force, comprised of community, business and health care leaders, are working to find solutions and make them a reality: bolstering outpatient mental health care services throughout the county; working with community partners to establish new programs; enlarging the mental health workforce and offering specialty training; engaging in advocacy to increase education and awareness about mental health problems; and providing prevention and early intervention services for children and adolescents with mental health problems.
The responsibility for helping children with mental illness isn’t incumbent on their families alone: We all play a part in helping them heal. CHOC is proud to lead the way and assure these families they don’t need to be afraid, and they are no longer alone.
Kimberly Chavalas Cripe is president and CEO of Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
