KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — East Tennessee Children's Hospital saw more mental and behavioral health patients in May than ever before. That spike is straining the staff.
In the emergency department and beyond, caring for kids comes from the heart. The hands of each and every healthcare worker help heal. Ron Phillips, the Chief Nursing Officer at ETCH, has been with the hospital for about 38 years. He first went into the field to make a difference.
Since he started, the cases and kids have changed drastically.
"One of the things that's markedly different right now is the impact that behavioral health has had," Phillips said.
The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a spike in those mental and behavioral health cases, and the numbers aren't slowing down either. Phillips says there are "seasons" to the spikes they see in the emergency department, and now, the numbers are staying high for longer.
Usually, they see more kids during Valentine's Day and prom season. But this year, the staff saw many more during May surrounding the time when kids would take the TCAP exam.
"Across Tennessee, there were about 20% of all high school kids who have contemplated suicide," Phillips said. "That wasn't something we talked about 30 years ago."
It's a statewide surge in depression, anxiety, stress and eating disorders.
"Our future is sitting in our middle schools and high schools right now, and those kids are hurting," Phillips said.
Staff are feeling strained and stressed as a result.
"Most of us went into pediatrics to do pediatrics," Phillips said. "We didn't go into pediatrics to do psychiatric care."
The emotional toll it takes on his nurses is something they can't leave behind when they clock out.
"We are a medical facility," Phillips said. "We're not a psychiatric facility, so it taxes them physically and emotionally."
Still, they treat every kid who comes in, making sure they keep a watchful eye and help the best they can. It's not always a simple fix to treat the behavioral and mental health concerns either — like it would be for a broken bone or injury.
"It's so complex, the nursing staff does a phenomenal job of doing it, but it is a very different world than a medical issue," Phillips said.
That's why Phillips hopes the hospital's new mental health initiative is a sign of more support.
"We've got to do more," Phillips said. "We all know we have to do more, but we have to stop saying, and we need to start doing. Our mental health fund is gonna be the first step at us doing something different, and thinking we'll have a different result."
ETCH hopes to raise $50,000 dollars. Every penny will go toward funding more staff, adding additional resources and stepping up care.
Phillips hopes in the long term, there can be more early intervention with kids in first and third grades, as well as more outpatient facilities in more areas.
Phillips says so many kids don't get the follow-up care they need because of their distance from crucial services.
Change starts with a single step into the future, having a vision to implement it and showing support from the beginning.
"As a community, we have to step up and say, 'We have to do more,'" Phillips said.
If you would like to donate to East Tennessee Children's Hospital's mental health initiative, click here.
One in five children experiences a mental disorder during the course of a year, according to the CDC. That's why WBIR is partnering with East Tennessee Children's Hospital to shine a light on that growing problem.