Despite the drawbacks of hospitalization, for many young people it is a repeat experience. A recent meta-analysis involving more than 83,000 young people found that 13.2% were readmitted to a psychiatric hospital after being discharged. BC data show similarly problematic readmission rates, with 553 young people being hospitalized for mental health concerns three or more times in 2019.

Researchers have been able to identify risk factors for being readmitted to hospital including initial hospitalizations being due to suicidal ideation and diagnoses involving psychotic, bipolar, attention-deficit/hyperactivity, autism spectrum, intellectual or eating disorders.

As well, youth with longer hospital stays and youth discharged to residential treatment were more likely to be readmitted than those with shorter stays who were discharged to other settings, such as their homes. Of note, age, gender, race/ethnicity, family psychiatric history, maltreatment history and non-suicidal self-injury were unrelated to readmission risk. Also unrelated to readmission risk were diagnoses of depressive, anxiety, oppositional defiant, conduct and posttraumatic stress disorders.

For more information, see Vol. 16, No. 3 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.