Three years ago my daughter Ellie suffered from severe depression and anxiety. She tried to take her own life and was hospitalized five separate times. The process of going to the emergency department is traumatic for a child in crisis. It consists of waiting for hours to be seen, and hours to be evaluated. It is humiliating, scary and exhausting. Think about being kept in a room with a paper bag for a trash can and nothing on the walls – nothing at all. The feelings of emptiness in that barren room are overwhelming.
Fortunately, she was able to “get a bed” at the N.H. State Hospital within five days. Other hospitalizations required a wait of a week and one was over a week. Her stay at the State Hospital required her to be escorted by the police or ambulance with handcuffs. This was too much for all of us to bear.
My daughter is stable now but still to this day it is an emotional trigger for her that the process is long and that children are treated in this manner. Mobile crisis response and stabilization sServices for children are long overdue, and the passage of Senate Bill 14 would ensure a child could receive services in their home and not have to go through the traumatizing process of an emergency department visit. Please make New Hampshire a leader in children’s mental health.
Please help N.H. children.
KIMBERLEY STORY and ELLIE CATHERINE COE
Hopkinton