The article “Kids abandoned at Upstate Golisano hospital attack the nurses: ‘Nobody signed up for this’ ” (March 10, 2026) does a remarkable job of drawing our attention to a serious crisis of inadequate psychiatric care — one that has existed for decades in Syracuse — and then making it worse by abandoning the kids yet again. This piece blames troubled children for the lack of support they and their families receive from a system that should be helping them. These struggling children are dehumanized, pitted against both medical professionals and other children with more traditional medical needs. They are portrayed as obstacles taking up space.
Doctors are apparently asking that the hospital “stop admitting children whose only problems are social and behavioral.” That word “only” is carrying too much weight. Uncontrolled impulsivity and violence are signals of issues in the prefrontal cortex; as parents whose kids have such issues, we know how real it can be. Those given a voice in this article seem to imply these children’s behavior is within their control — a fundamental misunderstanding of many disorders. Shockingly, these children showing extreme psychiatric symptoms are kept at the hospital without receiving psychiatric care!
So while we am profoundly disappointed in this piece, we are even more disappointed in the lack of collective will to do right by these kids. If children and their families had access to treatment and residential services that would meet them where they are, the nurses in this piece could do their jobs and the children experiencing these difficulties would have the help they need and deserve…