[kaycee]

We wait anywhere from 8 to 24hrs to get psych pt's placed. We are a community hospital with no psych, no 24hr social workers, no oncall psych MD, and no secure room and 1 security guard per shift. Alot of ours are drug and alcohol problems too and only certain facilities deal with that.
The largest psych hospital with the most beds and most outpt programs and one of the few that did drug & alcohol just closed it's doors. It will be very interesting to see where these people will go now and the safety issues of keeping them in small ERS ill-equiped for psych. I'm not looking forward to it.

[teeituptom]

Howdy yall
from deep in the heat of texas

From what I have been reading, you will be seeing more closures of psych beds. Things will only get worse.




doo wah ditty

[the new girl]

I work at a state Mental Institution, and in the past year, our patient census has been cut in half, by our state budget..... where these patients are going...? You tell me. If they were suffering from any other illness, I'm sure their beds wouldn't be eliminated, and their funding cut like this....
Do I sound bitter.....?

[Old RN]

Just a little but it is hard not to be, esp. for those of use with a life-long mission to care for the mentally ill.

[KKERRN]

We had a major city hospital close in our area about 2 yrs ago that had about 70 psych beds...since then our ER made to private seclusion rooms for mental health and have added on a security guard aas needed. They just recently started to have crisis worker in the ER 24 hrs instead of on call.
We hold some over night due to bed shortages in Ohio and the longest I'm aware of was 3 days!
Mental heath patients need mental health facilities with trained personnel to care for them! In our ER they are observed only,we feed them of course..but nothing is really addressed mental health wise!

[researchrabbit]

Several of our hospitals have closed their units. Psych patients with a medical problem in addition wind up on floors that can't handle them. Those who need a psych unit strictly for psych have a long wait time, sometimes 2-3 days.

[KarafromPhilly]

All of your posts are so scary. The mentally ill are treated SO poorly, like less than nothing, and have just lost an important advocate in Senator Wellstone. How awful for those whose families cannot care for them. Dorothea Dix is probably spinning in her grave, and we should all be ashamed of our society.

[teeituptom]

Howdy yall
from deep in the heart of texas

Im aware of senator Wellstones efforts, The senator is indeed a loss to Mental health care. While mental health care problems increase in Texas. And funding to Mental health is being curtailed by insurances in Texas. If you went to a hospital for severe depression and needed to stay a week. Your benefits from most insurance companies would have maxed out and you would be escorted out. Plus left with a string of bills large enough to make you depressed all by itself. The Insurances in Texas are cutting way back on psych benefits.
Then on top of the private sector cutting back on mental health payments. The state has cut back on mental health funding. Dallas county services is less than 10 percent of what it was 4 years ago. As a result from cuts to the state mental health institution, These cuts were enacted by the governor, what was his name. Yall probably helped vote him to the whitehouse. Thats it George W Bush. An opponrnt to mental health industry. And a proponent of cutting services to the mental health needy.

So as you see mental health beds closing yall can all HUM

" hail to the chief"

[CMERN]

well "hail to the Cheif" ... But here in georgia insurance companies have been giving 3 days and out, way before Busch came in office...Insurance companies can be given the raspberry , IMHO . when it comes down to it..who wants to be responsible (financially) for the mentally Ill?....no volunteers?...hm