‘I am tired’: a pediatric psychologist’s plaintive plea to help her help Baltimore children

I am a pediatric psychologist working with youth who have chronic illnesses in Baltimore, a city with generations of disinvestment and trauma. The past four years have been marked by a notable increase in the number of children referred to me with psychological distress that is worsening their physical and emotional well-being. What started as a relatively lengthy waitlist, has evolved into a seemingly endless list of patient names.