Therapeutic staff have been added to Children’s Minnesota emergency rooms to provide children with timely, continuous care.
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (Dec. 8, 2025) — Children’s Minnesota and Washburn Center for Children are tackling one of the most distressing trends in children’s health care: the growing number of kids coming to hospital emergency departments in mental health crisis and being held for days without access to needed treatment.
Over the past decade, emergency room visits for youth mental health crises have surged, leaving hospitals nationwide struggling to meet the demand. Known as emergency department boarding, this practice keeps children waiting—sometimes for days—until an appropriate placement becomes available or there is a plan to support a safe return home. During 2024 alone, Children’s Minnesota saw more than 1,200 such visits.
To address this, Children’s Minnesota and Washburn Center have launched a new collaborative. Washburn Center for Children has hired an acute response therapist who will work with Children’s Minnesota emergency departments to support families in crisis by connecting them with critical services and mental health care faster and more effectively.
“When a child arrives in our emergency room in the midst of a mental health crisis, they are at their most vulnerable. In these critical moments, it is our responsibility to offer not just care, but a lifeline,” said Emily Chapman, MD, president and CEO of Children’s Minnesota. “This partnership is one more step towards supporting families with the tools they need to navigate this difficult journey.”
A new bridge to healing
The new service focuses on understanding each family’s unique needs and building an immediate safety and stabilization plan. Staff begin working with caregivers while their child is still in the emergency department — helping them gain confidence and direction for the transition home.
This innovative program mobilizes community-based mental health experts to stabilize children, equip caregivers, and reduce time spent in hospital environments.
“Innovative partnerships are essential to transforming children’s mental health care,” said Craig Warren, CEO, Washburn Center for Children. “Too many families in our community find themselves in the emergency room during a child’s mental health crisis, feeling lost, alone and stuck for days. With this new collaboration, we’re planting the seeds of hope—creating a better way for families to find support, care, and healing when it matters most.”
The goal of the collaboration is to help youth and their family access intensive in-home or community-based support within 72 hours of referral to the new acute response therapist.
Key components of the program include:
- Developing a family stabilization plan before youth are discharged
- Connecting families with follow-up therapy, skill-building and community resources
- Assisting with documentation, care coordination and how to navigate public systems
- Creating individualized safety and support plans to maintain progress after leaving the hospital
- Reduces boarding time in emergency departments
- Improves care continuity for children and families
- Frees up hospital resources and inpatient beds
- Ensures tailored, home-based treatment proven to deliver lasting outcomes
- Reduces barriers for underinsured or uninsured families
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