How awesome would it be for El Camino, Lucille Packard and Kaiser to come together to provide services for our youth when they are having a mental health issue! El Camino Hospital is our community hospital. Please let the Board of Directors know that they need to actively support this partnership. They hold public meetings once a month at which you can voice your support. The next meeting is Wednesday, April 13th at 6:30. Or you can write the Board at: Chairperson of the Board of Directors, El Camino Hospital, 2500 Grant Road- M/S 1C31, Mountain View, CA 94040.

Given the sporadic recurring "clusters" of teen suicides locally, I'm delighted to learn of this plan. I'm wondering though how the program will overcome the stigma among young people about admitting to needing help with anything? Their delusions about being competent in all things seem so common.
I have no answer to that dynamic. I hope the program does.

I, too, am delighted to learn of this plan. I'm impressed that the leaders of El Camino, Lucille Packard, and Kaiser are working together to help our children who are in dire need of it. Thank you, too, to the Board of Supervisors of Santa Clara County for getting this ball rolling.

Thank you to the El Camino Hospital Board of Directors who allowed us to share our personal stories of trying to care for our children when no hospital in the county will help us. I believe that someone else's bad behavior does not excuse your own. Hopefully, El Camino Hospital will set the example for the other hospitals in Santa Clara County by committing to find a way to provide inpatient care for youth who are experiencing a mental health crisis.

Thank you El Camino, Lucille Packard, Kaiser and the Board of Supervisors of Santa Clara County!! I have several friends who have had to drive all over the bay area to visit their suicidal teens in hospital. It sounds unbelievably stressful to have a child with a life-threatening condition and then add driving for hours everyday.

@Maher I think talking about it in an open and matter of fact really helps to overcome the stigma. Things change. When I was a teen, many folks didn't talk about having cancer. Now most people just talk about cancer openly. Depression and cancer can kill people and early intervention can make a real difference. That's why public awareness and access to diagnosis and treatment is so important.

I think that it's very important for such healthcare solutions and facilities to be as welcoming as possible. Nobody wants to be going to a facility where they lock you up and isolate you and of course all the staff have to look as non-threatening as possible. Even more so when they are dealing with youths and young people!

Thanks UdyR for keeping this conversation going. Santa Clara County ended up contracting with San Jose Behavioral Health http://www.sanjosebh.com to provide inpatient youth psychiatric services for teens between the ages of 14 and 17. It is a nice facility and the staff is friendly but it is in the very south part of our County (where 85 and 101 intersect). There are still no in-county inpatient services for youth who are younger than 14 or who have co-occurring medical issues. Stanford is set to open its expanded Children's Hospital at the end of this year but there has been no indication that it will start to admit youth who need mental health hospitalization. Heart-breaking as we continue to lose our children to suicide.