Presentations

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for increased hospitalizations for patients with mental health diagnoses among adolescents. There is a large unmet need for acute psychiatric stabilization of children and adolescents nationwide. Although there has been an increase in the prevalence of depression in adolescents in recent years, to date, there have been no studies describing patients' demographics in a pediatric acute inpatient psychiatric facility. Our study aims to look at the demographics and social determinants of health (SDOH) that could affect children and adolescents' admission rates and quality of care across the country. We will ultimately determine if the CHKD Children's Pavilion fills the gap in our community's pediatric psychiatric needs.

Main Body: A literature review was conducted using Google Scholar and PubMed to search for the demographics of pediatric patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals and programs. Searches looked for demographics including race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and most common medical diagnoses seen at the facility. Google was used to search for programs offering "acute child psychiatric services". 50 pediatric psychiatric facilities were reviewed across 21 states. Patient demographics were reviewed within 1 year of CHKD Children's Pavilion being opened to examine the demographics of pediatric patients taken care of in this time frame. Our literature review showed that minimal information was known about the existing pediatric psychiatric facilities. Websites revealed ages, and the most common psychiatric diagnoses treated in their facilities. Very few programs discussed medical comorbidities that were cared for. Of the few that did, seizures, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and sleep disorders requiring CPAP were listed.

Conclusion: There is a great need for a description of the demographics and medical comorbidities of patients hospitalized in an acute pediatric inpatient psychiatric program. This project will show the data from one pediatric hospital and lead to future studies in pediatric mental health.