Hundreds of Children Are Stuck in Psychiatric Hospitals Each Year Despite the State's Promises to

Hundreds of Children Are Stuck in Psychiatric Hospitals Each Year Despite the State’s Promises to Find Them Homes


Two years ago, officials from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services vowed to rescue the children they called “stuck kids” — those in state care who had languished in psychiatric hospitals for weeks and sometimes months after doctors had cleared them for release because the agency could not find them proper homes.

But children continue to be held at psychiatric hospitals long after they are ready for discharge, a practice our reporting showed leaves them feeling isolated and alone, falling behind in school and at risk of being sexually and physically abused during prolonged hospitalization.

Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert, who filed a federal lawsuit against the department and key current and former directors and employees in December 2018 following the ProPublica Illinois investigation, said it was distressing that DCFS had not remedied the problem, even if the pandemic has complicated the agency’s work.

The number of psychiatric admissions that went beyond medical necessity first spiked in 2015, going from 88 the year before to 246. It continued to climb, reaching 301 in 2017, according to DCFS data obtained by ProPublica Illinois through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/hundreds-of-children-are-stuck-in-psychiatric-hospitals-each-year-despite-the-states-promises-to-find-them-homes