Night more families are sounding the alarm.
A few weeks ago we uncovered distressed
children sleeping on floors and
in hallways inside an overcrowded
mental health emergency department.
It is a problem we learned spans to other
hospitals throughout this area and the state.
A lawmaker told Armor are Nate Morabito,
the only way elected leaders
will ever make mental health.
A priority is if they hear
from outraged voters.
So tonight Nate Morabito
is seeking solutions.
They're about to hear from an
angry and heartbroken mother.
Her preteen is battling suicidal thoughts,
she says one overcrowded hospital
turned her daughter away and two
others forced her to sleep on the
floor and in a hallway chair. Long
before COVID-19 shut down schools and
isolated children. This woman's daughter
on her worst days.
She's very dark, battled despair.
She does resort to self harm.
She is suicidal on her worst
days bend the pandemic. It feels
like I'm one step away from losing my
first born child made it even worse.
I feel so sad that at 12 years old. She.
Feels that it would be better to not be
alive due to the sensitive
nature of her mental health.
We've chosen to hide her and
her mother's identities,
medical records show behavioral health.
Charlotte treated the girl for
suicidal ideations multiple
times over the last year. It
was so overcrowded that she had to share
a room with three or four other girls.
Emergency departments like this one have
become the safety net for patients with
mental illness and substance abuse.
Disorder, a holding area for children
waiting on beds elsewhere she was forced
to sleep on the floor. She was
also forced to sleep in a chair.
Kids who've said they had to sleep.
I slept in a chair in the hallway.
I witness kids sleeping on
mattresses on the floor,
some of them in the bathroom,
in chairs and on mattress is like these in
your heart as a mother.
How does that make you feel angry?
Who wants their child who is sick?
He was sick and he was.
Suicidal and who feels like they
don't have a purpose for living
to sleep on a floor that does
nothing but strip her dignity of
Fort Mill. Father expressed
similar outrage at the length of
time his son spent in the hallway
without a bed at behavioral health
Charlotte last month.
This is no ones fault. In particular.
This system has been created
over decades, citing a spike in
emergency department behavioral
health discharges for kids.
The North Carolina Health Care Association,
and eleven other organizations.
Recently called upon the governor and
other state leaders to do something
about the full blown state of
emergency. What is the General
Assembly doing right now to try
and solve this problem? We are
not doing enough. Representative
Carla Cunningham is a
registered nurse. It's tragic
and we must find some alternative
ways to address it. The House
Health Committee member says she's
heard from concerned parents to both
here and across the state. There
are children in Stanley County that
are waiting on their children in
other Montgomery counties that are
waiting to get proper placement.
She says North Carolina's mental
health system was already strained
before the pandemic and the last
year has only made the problem worse.
Cunningham tells us,
until lawmakers are willing to
dedicate recurring state money
to alleviate overcrowding,
there won't be enough bets.
I hope somebody start
pounding on that door. Do you
think this is a priority?
I do not, absolutely is not a priority.
Enter this mom on a mission
absolutely devastating soul,
crushing a mission to turn that pain.
I want her to be happy into a promise
of better care. And family
support atrium health runs
behavioral health Charlotte the health
system has called this a national problem,
but assured us it does everything it
can to ensure each patient receives
appropriate care and the best
possible outcome for their situation.
Nate morabito. WCNC Charlotte.