TOPEKA — The number of psychiatric treatment beds for kids in Kansas has increased overall in the past five years, but those with specialized needs continue to face hurdles when accessing care, a recent state study found.
Legislators allocated funding in the 2024 session for a study of youth psychiatric treatment beds. Through data analysis, interviews and site visits, the study found the number of beds available for youths has increased in the past five years by 39%, but there aren’t enough people available to staff all of them, and kids with specialized needs are left behind.
Specialized needs can include kids with complex medical needs, traumatic histories, problematic sexual behaviors and aggressive behaviors, said Drew Adkins, the commissioner of behavioral health services for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, at a Tuesday legislative hearing.
Even if psychiatric facilities were fully staffed, the state would lack capacity for specialized beds, and it would exceed capacity for non-specialized beds, according to the study results.
A psychiatric residential treatment facility is a “24/7 non-hospital, structured care environment for youth with severe emotional disturbance and other higher acuity behavioral health conditions,” according to KDADS. Kids typically stay between three and six months.
As of June, 136 kids were on a waiting list for a treatment bed in one of the state’s facilities, and half of those kids have specialized needs. The number of children on the waitlist has decreased in the past five years, but the number of kids denied a bed at least once has dramatically increased over the same period.
An estimated 18% of children on the waitlist were denied a treatment bed in 2019. In 2023, 63% of kids waiting for a bed were denied by a facility at least once. Fourteen kids were on the waitlist as of June and had been denied from all facilities in the state, the study found.
At the Tuesday hearing of the committee tasked with oversight of Kansas’ Medicaid program and health systems, Rep. Susan Concannon, R-Beloit, asked if a correlation exists between the passage of Senate Bill 367, a juvenile justice reform bill passed in 2016, and the increase in the number of youths with specialized needs, primarily aggressive behaviors, in need of psychiatric treatment beds.
Andy Brown, deputy secretary of programs for KDADS, said there has been a “significant pattern” between the bill’s passage and the increase in children with high acuity needs in the system.
“And I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, but it is a result, I think, of how we’re managing children with aggressive behaviors in our communities,” Brown said.
Adkins presented to legislators options for addressing the gap in access for young Kansans. In order to add more beds, regardless of their use for kids with specialized needs or kids without those needs, workforce retention initiatives and increased reimbursement rates were recommended. He also highlighted investments in infrastructure, such as facility design and a state-run psychiatric hospital, along with the creation of programs for outpatient services so kids can successfully exit treatment.
Those solutions could cost anywhere from $12 million to $18 million.
