Children’s Hospital Colorado hosting virtual town hall on youth mental health

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Children's Hospital Colorado is continuing to work on the youth mental health crisis. On Wednesday, they'll hold a virtual town hall to give parents ideas on how they can help their kids.

The town hall will be moderated by Colorado Children's new Mental Health-in-Chief Dr. Ron-Li Liaw, who was announced in this inaugural role two weeks ago.

After a tough two years, Colorado Children's says kids and parents could benefit from a boost in resiliency.

Children's Hospital Colorado first declared a State of Emergency in youth mental health in May of 2021. Last year, they saw more than 6,500 behavioral health visits from children in crisis. Children's Colorado says their inpatient psychiatric unit is full and they're continually admitting patients with suicidal thoughts.

"We have kids that were isolated, going to school online. They were captive audiences to social media as well as cyberbullying which can be a part of that. They lost a lot of time on their social skills and their ability to be resilient was taken away to a certain extent, so we’re kind of having to start over now that we’re two-plus years into this," said Tom Caughlan with Children's Hospital Colorado.

The town hall will highlight the work being done and have experts available to answer parents' questions. They'll touch on a variety of topics including coping mechanisms, how to know if your child is suffering, and resources available.

Back in May, Children's Colorado said by March of 2022 they would be able to increase their services by more than 50 percent, that goal is still on track.

To register you can visit the event link.