Staff at the IWK say the health centre is struggling to respond to the growing number of children with behavioural or mental problems admitted to the inpatient psychiatric unit.

This demand for services comes despite more provincial funding for programs and several large donations for mental health care help in the community.

"We're seeing that here in Nova Scotia, an increase in presentation to the emergency departments, an increase in referrals of individuals looking for help in the context of mental health," said Dr. Sabina Abidi, associate chief of psychiatry at the IWK.

Abidi says it is good that parents are seeking help for their children, but it is unfortunate that only the ones with the most life-threatening issues can get an appointment within a week.

"Our major pressure is our ability to meet the highest volume of referrals who come through and that would be our outpatient services", said Dr. Ruth Carter, director of mental health services at the IWK.

Carter says about half of the young people who come to the emergency department will be treated through an outpatient service.

"We would like to see most of our other [non-urgent] referrals within 30 days to be responsive. We are not able to do that. Most of our appointments are within 70 and 90 days," she said.

Psychiatric emergencies on the rise

The IWK has 16 psychiatrists on staff, but Carter says leaves of absences affect how many are available to treat patients in an outpatient setting.

The health centre has also seen a steady growth in the number of inpatients due to psychiatric emergencies.

The number of youths admitted to IWK's Garron Centre — the inpatient psychiatric unit — has increased dramatically since three years ago.

2014-2015: 471

2013-2014: 468

2012-2013: 406

"Often times they would come looking for an admission because they don't know other services are available to them," said Carter,

"When they get to our emergency department, we do a very thorough assessment and a risk assessment. At that point, we make a determination about what would be the … most appropriate match of service to that particular situation," she said.