Mental health conditions affect one in five children with only half of these children receiving proper treatment (CDC, 2022). This is partly due to the continued shortage of trained pediatric psychiatric providers in the community (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2019). In addition to the shortage of providers, there remains a shortage of pediatric psychiatric beds (Kraft et al., 2021). These combined factors have led to the pediatric boarding crisis in America (Leyenaar et al., 2021; McEnany et al., 2020; Nash et al., 2021).
When adolescents are admitted to the emergency department due to a mental health crisis, their ability to rest and sleep is often disrupted. The “Utilizing Mindfulness-Based Practices in a Pediatric Emergency Department” program offers occupational therapy practitioners a framework to help these adolescents regain a sense of normalcy in their daily routines and purposeful activities. Through the incorporation of mindfulness-based practices and comprehensive education, adolescents can work on re-establishing a healthy balance in their rest and sleep patterns
