72% of North Carolina Teens With a Mental Health Diagnosis Are Not Receiving Treatment

North Carolina has the highest rate of untreated youth mental health in the country. An estimated 50 youth are living in emergency departments across the state on any given day waiting for a psychiatric bed. Inpatient beds have decreased. Wait times have increased. Suicide was the leading cause of death for NC children ages 10 to 14 in 2019, and 67 children under 18 died by suicide in the state in 2021.

The ED Boarding Problem in North Carolina

The average daily statewide total for behavioral health holds in North Carolina reached 340 individuals in 2023. The Joint Commission defines boarding as holding a patient in the ED for four or more hours after the decision to admit or transfer has been made. In practice, NC youth are boarding for days. Families describe it as watching their child sit in a hallway under safety supervision with no actual psychiatric treatment, no access to the outdoors, and fragmented communication from rotating staff. For resources in your area follow this link here.

What That Means for Your Family

If your teen is in crisis right now, you are likely facing one of these situations:

Your child is in an ED on a behavioral health hold and there is no bed. They are in a non-therapeutic environment, not receiving psychiatric treatment, unable to go outside, and you are being told to wait.

Your teen is at home, refusing treatment, escalating, and your outpatient provider has a six week waitlist.

You have been told your child needs residential treatment but every in-state program is full and nobody is helping you figure out what to do next.

Through Interactive Health's companies, Interactive Youth Transport and Coast Health Consulting, we have the national reach and professional staff to help North Carolina families. We also serve families outside of North Carolina who have found a treatment center in the state but their child is resistant, high acuity, has never been to treatment before, or simply needs a professional support guide through the transition. We are flexible and have the resources to provide high level care and guidance no matter the situation. Call us today.

Out of State Resources

Due to the mismatch between needs and availability in North Carolina, many families find out-of-state treatment to be the best option. Families start looking at programs in Utah, Florida, Tennessee, California, and other states with deeper residential and wilderness treatment infrastructure. That decision comes with a new set of problems. How do you get a struggling teen on a plane to a facility 1,500 miles away. How do you evaluate a program you have never visited. How do you manage the logistics while your household is in crisis.

We solve the logistics. We also connect families with therapeutic consultants and clinical professionals in our network who specialize in program matching. These are independent consultants who receive nothing from programs for referring to them. We do not take referral fees from treatment centers. When we point a family toward a program it is because we have transported to it, seen how it operates, and know whether it delivers on what it promises.

Interactive Youth Transport prioritizes ethical practices. We value above all else the faith families place in us and the immense trust it takes to send your child into a treatment setting, whether in North Carolina or out of state. We make it our mission to provide reliable, relatable service you can count on, built through direct relationships from our owners to our companions and transport staff.

North Carolina as a Treatment Destination

At the same time NC families are looking out of state, families from across the country are sending their teens to North Carolina. Western NC in particular has become a national destination for wilderness therapy and therapeutic boarding schools. The Blue Ridge and Appalachian regions around Asheville, Black Mountain, Old Fort, and Brevard host programs that have built serious reputations for treating complex adolescent presentations.

We transport teens into these programs from every state in the country. We work seamlessly with programs to meet both their intake requirements and with the families to arrange for pickup at the best time for a positive outcome. We have successfully carried out over 200 transports a year across every time zone, and visited every state in the United States. Our staff are some of the most highly trained and experienced behavioral health providers in the transport space, and the clinical oversight that they work with is the most comprehensive transport based care model of its kind. Our metric for success is when our client is best prepared to make the first week of treatment the best week of treatment, rather than face an adjustment period. We know how to manage the final hours before an inpatient or wilderness admission so the teen arrives as regulated as possible. For therapeutic boarding school placements we handle home-to-school, school-to-school, and treatment-to-school transitions.

The Rural Gap

NC's behavioral health resources are concentrated in the Triangle, Charlotte, and the Triad. If your family lives in a rural part of the state, access to adolescent behavioral health care drops off significantly. Fewer providers. Longer drives. Less specialized care. Mobile crisis teams exist but response times and follow-through vary.

For rural NC families, the path to getting a teen into appropriate care almost always involves travel. We serve every county in the state and build transport plans around your specific location, not just the nearest airport.

Intervention Services

We provide intervention services in Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Wilmington, Asheville, and statewide. Clinician-led, built around your teen's specific situation, coordinated with your existing providers and the receiving program.

• In-home intervention statewide

• Family coaching before, during, and after

• Coordination with therapeutic consultants and placement professionals

• Licensed clinician from planning through execution

• Direct transition to transport, no separate handoff

• Aftercare through Coast Health Consulting

Companion Services

For teens who have been through multiple programs and nothing stuck. Or families who want individualized care no facility can provide.

Coast Health Consulting places a trained clinical companion directly with your teen. At home, at school, at a sober living. Every day. Structure, accountability, real relationship, measurable goals.

• Aftercare when the transition home needs daily support

• Young adults at NC universities who need structure

• Teens who have failed multiple placements

• Around the clock oversight without an institutional setting

• International families with children at NC boarding schools who need local support

Case Management

Coast Health Consulting provides case management for families navigating the treatment landscape wherever they are and manage clients throughout the continuum of care, from intervention to long term recovery. Read about our Core Case Management Program here.

Assessment and Individualized Wellness Plans

Some families do not need transport or placement. They need someone to assess the situation and build a plan. We deploy our clinical team, assess your teen's functioning, risk factors, family dynamics, and treatment history, and design an individualized wellness plan. Companion placement, case management, outpatient coordination, school-based support, or a combination. Based on what your family needs.

Coverage

Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Asheville, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Chapel Hill, Boone, Black Mountain, Old Fort, Brevard, and everywhere in between.