Pediatric mental health experts in Oregon contend that the closure of large residential psychiatric facilities for children and adolescents has not been met with the adequate build-up of community mental health services. As a result, communities are forced into dichotomies where children don’t get treatment for their mental health issues until they become full-blown crises. And even in those cases, the state only has a total of 39 psychiatric beds in hospitals for kids, none of which are in Central Oregon.
