International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Letter to Editor

Psychiatric Emergency Department for Youth: A Challenge for the Future of Child and Adolescent Mental Health

¹Department of Mental and Physical Health and Preventive Medicine, Second University of Naples, 80131 Naples, Italy

²IRCCS Stella Maris, Scientific Institute of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Calambrone, Pisa, Italy

Corresponding Author:

Simone Pisano
Department of Mental and Physical Health and Preventive Medicine
Second University of Naples
80131 Naples, Italy
E-mail: pisano.simone@gmail.com

In his recent paper, Zun (2016) has outlined some critical issues in the management of psychiatric patients in Emergency Departments (ED). He underlines disparities in the care of medical vs. psychiatric patients, as well as negative attitudes of emergency physicians towards psychiatric patients. Consistently, Appelbaum (2015) has recently reported on the growing frequency of the “boarding” phenomenon (Stefan, 2006; Bender, Pande & Ludwig, 2008), consisting in the prolonged stay of psychiatric patients in an unsuited environment such as ED, which could lead to serious consequences, for psychiatric patients and ED staff, as well as for other patients (Bender, Pande & Ludwig, 2008). Although these papers have focused on adult patients, most considerations can be translated to pediatric ED as well.