The behavioral medicine unit: a community hospital model for inpatient treatment of adolescent depression.

This article describes one community hospital's response to the overwhelming needs of adolescents in central Iowa. It is based on the premise that many youths who have severe depression do not effectively respond to various outpatient counseling measures, and are in need of some type of inpatient treatment. Most such programs are locked psychiatric units run by child or adolescent psychiatrists. In our case, those wards already in existence are filled to capacity and cannot respond to outside needs. Placing these youth on traditional medical adolescent wards does not work, since medical staff are usually not geared to deal with the many, ever-changing mental health needs of these patients. Thus, we developed an unlocked adolescent inpatient unit with a pediatrician experienced in adolescent medicine as medical director; moreover, the program extensively utilizes psychologists, nurse-counselors, social worker-family therapists, recreation therapists, and other specialists. This program is a way for physicians trained in adolescent medicine and other appropriate persons to contribute to the complex health needs of youth; it is preferable to do this rather than send all depressed teenagers away by referrals, as seems to happen in some cases. It is also an important way for physicians and other specialists to demonstrate their expertise--both the Society for Adolescent Medicine and American Academy of Pediatrics have advocated such a demonstration--and to give physicians important training in the medical and mental health care needs of youth. Finally, the Spectrum Unit program provides a meaningful way for the primary care physician to be involved in the inpatient treatment of depressed adolescent patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)