SACRAMENTO – (INT) - California was facing a crisis in providing mental health care to children and youth before the coronavirus pandemic. Incidents of youth deliberately causing self-harm increased 50 percent in California between 2009 and 2018, the state auditor reported, and suicide rates among this group continue to rise.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation reports that the state’s children experienced the second largest increase in anxiety and depression in the country from 2016 to 2020. This data includes children ages three to 17.

COVID-19 has only exacerbated those numbers, and while California has begun to ramp up resources one critical gap is the lack of children’s crisis residential services.

Story Date: August 21, 2022