1. Running head: MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE 1
Rachel Kohlway
Case Study #3 –
Mental Health Issue
HCS 410
Dr. Ballantyne

2. MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE 2
Introduction
America is plagued with a variety of mental health issues. America has historically
struggled with meeting the needs for individuals with mental health issues. Especially, when
looking within the Reading population there is a major lack of pediatric/adolescent inpatient
psychiatric units. In fact, there are absolutely none within the Reading limits. If parents want to
keep their children local, it is no longer even an option for them. As barriers for Reading’s
children to be able to seek inpatient psychiatric care increase, changes in the community need to
take place.
From 1993 until 2013 Reading Hospital had an inpatient adolescent (children ages twelve
to eighteen) psychiatric unit. The unit was a part of Spruce Pavilion, which also cares for adults
and elderly patients with mental health disorders. It was a four bed unit, that often had to take
extra beds from the adult/elderly section to accommodate for more patients. During the school
year it was easy to keep the beds full, and often then some. Many times there were up to eight
adolescent patients because the added stressors of school cause many students to need to seek
mental health services. However, during the summer time the hospital found it was difficult to
keep the beds full, usually averaging two to three children. After reviewing income, budget, and
a variety of other factors the hospital felt that the reward was not greater than the risk, thus the
unit closed its doors in March of 2013. The other local hospital, Saint Joseph’s Regional Medical
Center, also does not have any inpatient pediatric/adolescent units (Brandon Ballantyne).
Not having an adolescent psychiatric unit within the Reading limits poses a huge
disadvantage to the population. Hispanics/Latino’s in general have a high amount of mental
health disparities, and it is only worse for children. (A majority of Readings population is
Hispanic/Latino). One study shows that one out of every five children require mental health

3. MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE 3
services, but only twenty percent of children receive any type of evaluation and treatments. If
only twenty percent are receiving proper treatment, that means that eighty percent of children are
not receiving any psychiatric health services/treatments (Kataoka, Zhang, & Wells). This number
is even higher among children of Hispanic/Latino descent. The numbers indicate that seven point
five million children in the United States have unmet mental health care needs. Not only are the
children of Reading at a greater disadvantage due to their ethnicity, they also have a more
difficult time due to income. Many families in the Reading area are impoverished, which studies
have proven cause a greater disparity when it comes to meeting individuals’ mental health care
needs (Kataoka, Zhang, & Wells). All of these factors combined together negatively impact the
adolescent population in Reading when it comes to properly providing for their mental health
care needs.
Currently, if an adolescent requires inpatient psychiatric care their choices are going to
Kids Peace in Allentown or to one of the Philadelphia hospitals. Either way the commute is
around an hour to an hour and a half. The travel time is a huge barrier for many families. Also,
many families seem to be more anxious and upset now that there is not a local unit for their
children (Brandon Ballantyne). These barriers also make it harder for families/parents to be a
part of their child’s treatment. Often times parents are brought in to do therapy sessions and be a
part of other treatment options for their children, which is found to be incredibly beneficial
(Brandon Ballantyne). Now, because the inpatient centers are so far away from Reading, parents
are becoming less involved in their children’s treatment, which could hinder the treatment
progress and process. As of right now Reading hospitals position on the matter is to ‘wait and
see.’ The hospitals administrators are not completely ruling out the option of reopening the
adolescent psychiatric unit, but do not see if happening until they feel there is a much greater

4. MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE 4
need. What the hospital is doing, however, is creating verbal contracts with other inpatient
centers/units, such as KidsPeace. These contracts state that Reading Hospital will refer patients
to these centers/units and in turn when a patients’ treatment is completed these centers/units will
refer them back to Reading Hospital for outpatient care (Brandon Ballantyne).
Analysis
Something that can be done to improve the issue of there being no local, inpatient
adolescent psychiatric unit in Reading for the future would be to reopen the four bed adolescent
unit in Spruce Pavilion (part of Reading Hospital). It would not cost the hospital any additional
costs because all they would be doing would be taking four of the beds from the adult/elderly
section to use in the adolescent wing. They could be used during the school year, and when/if the
numbers go down in the summer the beds can be used again in the adult/elderly wing. This will
not cost the hospital anything, but will bring in more revenue. Due to the fact that many
counselors treat a variety of age groups (like Brandon) they technically would not have to hire
any new workers. However, they could create new positions creating more job opportunities for
the community. Since Reading Hospital has already run the adolescent inpatient facility before
they will already have first-hand experience on what it would take to run it, the resources needed,
and who would be qualified to run it. In fact, the person in charge of running the adult wing
could just overlook the adolescent wing as well.
Conclusion
As Reading Hospital goes on almost three years of having no inpatient adolescent
psychiatric unit, it may be time for hospital administrators to reevaluate their choices. America is
struggling with meeting the mental health care needs of children, especially those in
impoverished areas and children of Hispanic/Latino descent. Reopening the inpatient adolescent

5. MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE 5
psychiatric unit at Reading Hospital can help to eliminate these children’s unmet mental health
care needs. It would be cost efficient, even bringing in revenue to the hospital. Also, it would
create more job openings which would only benefit the Reading community. The children are
supposed to be our future, and doing this would help many reach their full potential.

6. MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE 6
References
Ballantyne, B. (2015, Nov 6). Telephone Interview.
Katoaka, S., Zhang, L., & Wells, K. Unmet need for mental health care among U.S. children:
Variation by ethnicity and insurance status. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 159(9),
1548-1555. http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.9.1548