About our Psychiatric Emergency Services

Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) provides consultation and assessment of psychiatric patients presenting to the emergency room at Children’s Hospital Colorado. PES clinicians additionally consult to urgent callers from the community, such as parents and healthcare providers, collaborate to determine appropriate mental health interventions and help link families and patients to the recommended level of care. PES coordinates admissions to Children’s Colorado’s Psychiatric Inpatient, Medical Day Treatment, Intensive Outpatient and Outpatient Specialty Programs and works closely with other community-based partners in mental health to facilitate referrals.

Why choose Children’s Hospital Colorado for emergency psychiatric care?

We offer 24-hour psychiatric emergency department evaluations in which children, adolescents and families with psychiatric emergencies can be assessed and have treatment interventions recommended. Our staff has special training and experience to work with families and children of all ages, presenting with a broad range of psychiatric emergencies.

PES is staffed by a child psychiatrist, child psychiatry resident, licensed masters-level clinicians and psychiatric registered nurse. The team additionally works with parents, schools, mental health providers and other systems providing care to children to provide comprehensive assessment and well-informed recommendations.

What to expect from PES

Comprehensive psychiatric assessment in the emergency department typically takes 1 to 2 hours, depending upon level of complexity. Wait time to assessment varies with the fluctuating patient volume in PES. PES strives to provide timely, efficient and high quality patient and family-focused care, delivered in a specially designed environment that promotes safety and privacy.