SEATTLE — There are many reasons a child winds up at Seattle Children’s Hospital. It could be a playground accident, a bad virus, or a severe allergic reaction. The number one reason might surprise you.
“More than 50,000 kids came to Seattle Children’s last year for a mental or behavioral health visit,” said Dr. Jeff Sperring, Seattle Children’s Hospital CEO. “It’s the most common reason to come to Seattle Children’s for a visit.”
Sperring sat down with KOMO News for an exclusive interview, talking about the youth mental health crisis and a new offering from Seattle Children’s.
He said many families seeking mental health help go to the emergency room, but he knows there’s a better way.
“We will open the first urgent care clinic specifically dedicated to kids for mental and behavioral health issues. And so for the first time, patients and families, if they’re in a bit of a crisis, don’t have to go to the emergency department,” Sperring said.
The new mental health urgent care is now open at the Children’s Magnuson Clinic. In addition to in-person visits, providers offer virtual appointments for families across the state.
“Half of our counties in Washington state don’t have access to mental behavioral health services, a child psychiatrist, or a specialist within their county,” Sperring said. “It’s difficult for them to find care locally, and then where can they go to be able to get that.”
Inside the new urgent care, children will be assessed by a specialist. If needed, they’ll develop a safety plan and connect families with the next steps in care, which could range from their pediatrician to an intensive program. The clinic will treat anxiety, depression, self-harm, eating disorders and more.
Sperring first called for a youth mental health moonshot in 2018, recognizing alarming trends.
“Even though we had done a lot of work to expand our access and mental health up to that point, it just felt like if that trend continued, we needed to do more,” he said. “So I felt like kind of really calling this out was the right thing to do. Obviously, none of us could have anticipated the pandemic that was coming and the impacts of that. So I’m glad that we started when we did, but clearly, we recognize that there’s just so much more that we need to do.”
Sperring pointed to glimmers of hope in the youth mental health crisis, including recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data showing a slight decline in the number of young people reporting feelings of persistent sadness. Despite that change, the hospital system can be overwhelmed by mental health needs.
“When the pandemic was happening, we were saying this may be kind of the viral pandemic for adults, but the real pandemic for kids is going to be the mental behavioral crisis that probably comes after,” Sperring said. “What’s also really heartbreaking is we’re seeing it actually in much, much younger kids. So it really is making sure that we’ve got that access for all of our kids and our families when they need it.”
The new urgent care clinic aims to get children help in a faster, simpler way — before it’s an emergency. Because of the expected demand, Children’s Magnuson Clinic is already looking at where it might open additional urgent cares, inside the hospital’s regional clinics.
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