On October 16, KHA President and CEO Nancy Galvagni testified before the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary in Frankfort in support of Senator Danny Carroll’s legislation to address the problem of violent youth in Kentucky hospitals.
The issue is a serious problem as there is an increasing number of “high acuity” Kentucky youth being treated in Kentucky hospitals. In December of 2023, Kentucky’s psychiatric hospitals reported to KHA they had 129 high acuity youth being treated in their facilities. That number jumped to more than 500 in August 2025. These patients have highly specialized clinical needs that require different, and more intensive, resources than are typical for inpatient psychiatric care.
Despite instances of violence against hospital staff, and even a riot in one instance, police are unwilling to intervene.
Galvagni testified that clinicians need to be able to determine the appropriate setting for the patient’s treatment for the safety of the patient, therapists, and other patients. She stressed that psychiatric hospitals urgently need the process outlined in Senator Carroll’s bill which allows hospitals to complete a clinical evaluation of a high acuity youth before admission, to determine if admission is appropriate, as well as setting out a process to discharge a high acuity youth for committing an act of violence while they are hospitalized.
