The pandemic threw into sharp relief the mental health challenges faced by many populations in the U.S. One of the worst is kids.

Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale has seen a big jump in the number of kids going to the hospital with mental health crises in the last year, but according to Dr. Srinivas Dannaram, this has always been an underserved population when it comes to mental health services.

Dannaram is a lead psychiatrist for Banner Thunderbird Behavioral Health Services, which has just opened a new 12-bed inpatient pediatric behavioral health unit for kids age 5 to 12.

The Show spoke with him to learn about about the new unit and the need it's attempting to fill.

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