A major Justice Department investigation concluded that children in Alaska with mental health issues are “forced to endure unnecessary and unduly long” institutionalization in locked psychiatric hospitals and other facilities because no alternatives exist.
Alaska’s behavioral health system in 2021. The department didn’t reveal exactly why it picked Alaska to examine, but the state’s Disability Law Center had lodged complaints before, said Leslie Jaehning, an attorney with the center.aimed at improving mental health offerings for children.
Being institutionalized “can be devastating for children — and uniquely so for Alaska Native children, compounding the trauma of past generations when Alaska Native youth were routinely taken from their communities and sent to boarding schools,” the report says. The situation remains particularly dire in rural Alaska, according to the report. At worst, kids in a psychiatric crisis end up staying in emergency rooms and even jail cells.
The state planned to boost funding for tested efforts to keep kids in their homes, including crisis response teams, therapeutic foster homes and intense case management. The Alaska Department of Health is making improvements, said spokesman Clinton Bennett, pointing to legislation passed in 2021 to allow short-term crisis stabilization centers.
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