Yale Nurse from Durham Appears on '60 Minutes' Segment Highlighting Gaps in Mental Health Care

A Durham resident and a doctor at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital appeared on "60 Minutes" during a segment that aired Sunday regarding mental health and children.

Brian Geyser, a nurse practitioner at the hospital and a town resident, spoke to the 60 Minutes producers about the children who suffer from mental health issues and who are hospitalized at Yale following temper tantrums and sometimes violent outbreaks.

The segment highlighted the story of Virginia state Sen. Creigh Deeds, whose son, Gus, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Gus attempted to take Creigh’s life just hours after Gus was turned away from a hospital because no beds were available in area psychiatric wards. After stabbing Creigh several times in the face, Gus shot and killed himself; Creigh survived the attack.

View the full segment here.

As CBS correspondent Scott Pelley noted in the report, the emergency room is the first place where children with mental health issues usually wind up. Geyser discussed how the children are brought in:

"Usually it's in an ambulance ... police may be accompanying them, parents do come in, sometimes teachers bring them in from school," Geyser said. "But usually the scenario is 911 was been called."

The symptoms are usually intense and severe, Geyser said.

"These are kids who are persistently and severely violent, out of control, threatening to kill their teachers, punching, kicking, biting, scratching, flipping desks in the classrooms," he said.

Several mothers from West Hartford also appeared in the "60 Minutes" story.

The Hartford Courant’s Rick Green reported on Jan. 16 that the Connecticut legislature is expected to consider “new initiatives to address shortcomings in mental health care.”

A transcript of the 60 Minutes segment and the video of “Nowhere to Go: Mentally Ill Youth in Crisis” can be found here.