Key Points:
- Youth in care have high rates of emotional and behavioral disorders.
- Exposure to abuse and neglect have profound effects on their ability to regulate his or her behaviors and emotion, along with complicating psychiatric presentations. Inpatient psychiatric treatment of youth in care often involves foster parents, biological parents, and caseworkers.
- Psychiatric hospitalizations for youth in care are often significantly prolonged due to lack of post-discharge placements.
- Due to lack of discharge placements youth in care are often forced to board in emergency departments and general medical units, detention centers, government offices, and hotels.
