NABH Comments on the Critical Role of Youth Residential Treatment Facilities

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association for Behavioral Healthcare recognizes the longstanding good work of its members to provide quality – and often life-saving – care to America's children and youth in residential treatment facilities (RTFs).

Today the Senate Finance Committee released Warehouses of Neglect: How Taxpayers are Funding Systemic Abuse in Youth Residential Treatment Facilities, a lengthy report that cites limitations and problems at youth RTFs and fails to recognize the critical care, treatment, and educational support these programs provide to our nation's youth.

"NABH is eager to work with federal leaders to develop policies that advance access to quality care in the appropriate settings for U.S. youth who struggle with mental health and substance use disorders," said NABH President and CEO Shawn Coughlin. "We also want to remind congressional leaders that if public discourse about youth RTFs is to benefit the common good, we need to ensure that policymakers, members of the media, worried parents, concerned teachers, and the general public share the same, clear understanding of the role that regulated, licensed RTFs play in the behavioral healthcare continuum."

The goal of youth psychiatric residential treatment is to provide care to children and adolescents with significant social and emotional needs in a non-hospital, highly structured, and therapeutic environment. These settings provide a safe place where individuals can gain stability, support, and treatment for mental health diagnoses, substance use disorders, intellectual/developmental disabilities, sexual conduct disorders, and other disabilities that require long-term treatment.

Equally important to understanding the role of youth RTFs is recognizing the urgent and increasing need for them in the United States today. Since 2010, the number of youth residential treatment programs has declined by 60.9%; the number of youth served has declined by 77%; and the number of beds has declined by 66.2%; according to a May 2024 study from the Manhattan Institute. Meanwhile, the demand for youth behavioral healthcare services has increased greatly, as the Health Resources and Services Administration reports that between 2016 and 2020, the number of children and youth ages 3-17 years diagnosed with anxiety grew by 29% and those with depression by 27%. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 in 2020 and the rate of overdose deaths among adolescents has increased sharply since 2019. Youth RTFs provide the appropriate environment to deliver care for youth who need behavioral healthcare services desperately.

Please read NABH's youth RTF fact sheet to learn more about these licensed, regulated facilities. And for more information, please visit our youth services webpage and read NABH's policy paper, Residential Treatment: A Vital Component of the Behavioral Healthcare Continuum.

About NABH
The National Association for Behavioral Healthcare (NABH) represents provider systems that treat children, adolescents, adults, and older adults with mental health and substance use disorders in inpatient behavioral healthcare hospitals and units, residential treatment facilities, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs, medication assisted treatment centers, specialty outpatient behavioral healthcare programs, and recovery support services in 49 states and Washington, D.C. The association was founded in 1933.

SOURCE National Association for Behavioral Healthcare