Every week an average of 10 children with serious mental
illnesses are admitted to Billings Clinic Psychiatric Center and
about the same number are discharged. Most young psychiatric
patients stay less than a week.
“We try to stabilize them in two or three days,” said Terry
Smith, a clinical social worker who cares for kids at Billings
Clinic.
The kids come from the Billings area, the Hi-Line, Eastern
Montana and beyond. Billing Clinic is the only psychiatric hospital
in the eastern half of the state that cares for children. It serves
all children who need its services, but two-thirds of them depend
on Medicaid — the state-federal health program — to pay their
medical bills.