NY has a “Tragedy Before
Treatment” Mental Ilness Policy. We need a “Treatment Before
Tragedy” System.
In NY hearing voices and
being delusional is, not enough to get someone treatment if they don’t
recognize they are ill. For that to happen, they have to force the issue by
bringing on a tragedy. Rather than prevent violence, NY laws require it.
About
16% of all the people in Office of Mental Health psychiatric hospitals are forensic
patients, who gained admission only after a tragedy occurred and a court
process forced the state to admit them.
New York went from 600 beds per 100,000 population in
the mid-1950s to fewer than 27 today. As a result, Rikers Island is New York’s
largest psychiatric institution, holding more mentally ill people than all
Office of Mental Health hospitals combined.
State mental health officials are proposing to close
more psychiatric hospital beds, thereby making hospitalization even more difficult.
They claim few of the existing beds
are used, but that is only because the Office of Mental Health discharges
patients “sicker and quicker” to artificially reduce the count. Experts say, to meet minimum standards, NYS needs 4300 more beds to serve those with serious mental illness. Here's what we need to do.
