Crisis Preparedness in Acute and Intensive Treatment Settings: Lessons Learned From a Year of COVID-19.

The impact of COVID-19 changed the use and delivery of health care services, requiring an abrupt shift in treatment and staffing models . This is particularly salient in youth acute and intensive treatment services (AITS), including inpatient psychiatric hospitals (IPH), intensive outpatient programs (IOP), and partial hospitalization programs (PHP), because of challenging issues of maintaining high-quality care and a safe therapeutic milieu during increased demand for acute services, all while limiting transmission of COVID-19 on locked units, in close quarters, and for youths traveling back and forth to day-programs. Over the past year, AITS adapted and evolved without the ability to pause services and plan, increase staffing, or allocate additional resources.