Across North Carolina, adolescents experiencing mental health crises wait in emergency rooms for days or even weeks for a psychiatric bed to become available. Youth in Mecklenburg County are no exception to this statewide challenge since the county, among many others, lacks the infrastructure required to treat the growing number of young people in crisis.
Rising treatment costs and insurance gaps leave many families with few options.
According to Anthony Trotman, Director of the Katie Blessing Center, capacity shortages have reached an extreme point…