A recent investigative report from Syracuse, NY’s Post Standard highlights a growing concern unfolding at hospitals in the area. The article describes how “children with serious behavioral and social problems” are being abandoned at Upstate Golisano hospital after parents and caregivers are left feeling they have no other options.
Hospital staff interviewed for the article express concerns about their safety while also acknowledging that they do not have the capacity or training to care for children with complex behavioral and psychiatric needs. While the story is framed as a growing problem for hospitals, it ultimately points to something larger: a failure of community systems meant to support children and families.
In response to the investigation, two Syracuse-area residents, Sarah Hamersma, Ph.D., and Samantha Pierce, M.S.W., submitted a letter to the editor urging the community to reconsider how these children are being portrayed. Their message is an important one: the problem is not the children themselves, but the lack of services available to them.
Click Here to Read Sarah and Samantha’s Letter to the Editor
Impulsivity, aggression, or emotional dysregulation are often symptoms of complex neurological, developmental, or trauma-related conditions. Behaviors that may appear willful or disruptive are frequently the result of underlying brain differences and unmet support needs. When appropriate services are unavailable, children are too often misunderstood or blamed for circumstances beyond their control.
The situation described in Syracuse reflects a broader national challenge. Communities need stronger systems of care that include crisis stabilization services, specialized residential programs, and coordinated supports for children with complex developmental and behavioral needs. Without those systems in place, hospitals, schools, child welfare agencies, and the juvenile justice system are left trying to fill roles they were never designed to play.
Don’t blame kids abandoned at Upstate hospital for not getting support they need (Your Letters)
Originally published by Syracuse.com, March 12, 2026
To the Editor:
The article “Kids abandoned at Upstate Golisano hospital attack the nurses: ‘Nobody signed up for this’ does a remarkable job of drawing our attention to a serious crisis of inadequate psychiatric care — one that has existed for decades in Syracuse — and then making it worse by abandoning the kids yet again. This piece blames troubled children for the lack of support they and their families receive from a system that should be helping them. These struggling children are dehumanized, pitted against both medical professionals and other children with more traditional medical needs. They are portrayed as obstacles taking up space.
Doctors are apparently asking that the hospital “stop admitting children whose only problems are social and behavioral.” That word “only” is carrying too much weight. Uncontrolled impulsivity and violence are signals of issues in the prefrontal cortex; as parents whose kids have such issues, we know how real it can be. Those given a voice in this article seem to imply these children’s behavior is within their control — a fundamental misunderstanding of many disorders. Shockingly, these children showing extreme psychiatric symptoms are kept at the hospital without receiving psychiatric care!
So while we are profoundly disappointed in this piece, we are even more disappointed in the lack of collective will to do right by these kids. If children and their families had access to treatment and residential services that would meet them where they are, the nurses in this piece could do their jobs and the children experiencing these difficulties would have the help they need and deserve.
Sarah Hamersma, Ph.D. | Syracuse
Samantha Pierce, M.S.W. | Syracuse
