Youth Residential Treatment in America

America's children are in crisis—and the system designed to help them is breaking down. Christina Buttons, Naomi Schaefer Riley, Scott Dziengelski, and Carolyn Gorman explore one of the most urgent and overlooked issues in public health: the severe shortage of residential treatment beds for young people struggling with mental illness. What happens when children need intensive care and there's nowhere to send them? We dig into the real story behind treatment facilities, cutting through the media sensationalism to show what quality mental health care for kids really looks like. Our discussion pulls no punches on how flawed legislation is making a fragile system even worse—and how the right reforms could make a difference.