Showing posts with label psychiatric hospitals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychiatric hospitals. Show all posts

Monday, February 22, 2016

NYS Needs Kendra's Law & Psychiatric Hospitals. Don't let mental health industry close them

The two trade associations representing NYS mental health providers (NYAPRS and MHA) are having their annual rally in Albany tomorrow (Tue. 2/23). We OPPOSE their attempts to move mental health spending away from the 5% who are the most seriously mentally ill and towards the higher functioning. Their proposals to end Kendra’s Law and close state psychiatric hospitals puts patients, police, and public at needless risk. We will be in Albany on Tuesday to oppose raiding services that treat the seriously mentally ill.

1. Support making Kendra’s Law Permanent and Stronger. (S-04722/A01275).

While NAMI/NYS supports this, the trade associations do not. Kendra’s Law is NY’s most successful program for the most seriously mentally ill. It allows judges to order someone who already accumulated multiple episodes of arrest, violence, incarceration or needless hospitalization to stay in six months of mandated and monitored treatment while they continue to live free in the community. It is only available to those who already refused to accept voluntary treatment that was made available to them. It also allows judges to order community programs to accept these individuals into their programs. Kendra’s Law is proven to reduce arrest, violence, hospitalization and incarceration in 80% range each, cut costs to taxpayers and reduce stigma. 81% of those in it said it helped them get well and stay well.
S04722/A01275 make Kendra’s Law permanent, ensure court orders are reviewed before expiring, requires community directors to take reports from family members about loved ones who might benefit, and lowers cost by allowing patients to voluntarily stipulate to Kendra’s Law orders. The NYS Assoc. of Chiefs of Police support.

2. Oppose Closing more Psychiatric Hospital Beds.

The trade associations are supporting Gov. Cuomo’s budget proposal to close 225 more psychiatric beds that serve the seriously mentally ill. We oppose. The trade associations look at these beds as a bank account and want them closed so the savings can be given to their member organizations. But there are two problems with that. NYS is short at least 4,000 psychiatric hospital beds even if we had perfect community programs. So closing hospitals guarantees the sickest will not receive treatment. Secondly, even when some savings are given to community programs, they refuse to use them to provide actual treatment to the same adults who are being discharged from hospitals. Instead the funds are used on wasteful sideshows like educating the public, fighting ‘stigma’, identifying the asymptomatic, or funding programs with no evidence of efficacy. As a result, NYS has more mentally ill incarcerated than hospitalized. The percentage of prisoners in NYC jails with mental illness shot up 30% between 2010 and 2014.
We do support increasing housing options, but first we must increase those that provide 24/7 onsite support (group homes), versus the independent housing options supported by the trade associations that serve the higher functioning.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Rep. Tim Murphy Announces Important Mental Health Legislation

This is big news.

Rep Tim Murphy (R. PA) is a former child psychologist, and head of the Mental "Health" Caucus. In spite of that,  he totally gets serious mental "illness" in adults and what the important versus tangential issues are.  He is as good as a Wellstone or a Domenici, and better than a Kennedy (who tended to focus on mental 'health' versus mental 'illness')

Rep. Tim Murphy has held extensive hearings where he listened to others focused on the most seriously ill including Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, Sally Satel, Joe Bruce , Ed Kelly. He also received extensive input from consumers around the country who contacted him. He  announced the results of his hearings today and the legislation he intends proposing.  It includes preserving hospitals, AOT (a/k/a Kendra's Law), revising HIPPA Handcuffs ( so families can get the info they need to help mentally ill loved ones), reigning in SAMHSA's anti-treatment activities , increasing police training, increasing NIMH budget for serious mental illness, and other key issues. I am very excited. 

 I am no Washington Insider, so I have no knowledge if it will fly or not. But at least someone is focused on right issues, not just PC tangential ones. Please support these efforts. He is totally on the right track. His press release and link to the floor speech follows: (Read more)

Thursday, October 11, 2012

New Report: NYS Office of Mental Health Falsifies Discharge Plans for Mentally Ill

An investigation by acting New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott found officials at Kingsboro Psychiatric Center allowed the release of mentally ill patients without a required discharge plan and then directed staff to cover it up. In this particular case, Kingsboro discharged a mentally ill woman to a street corner near a shelter. (Read Full Report or Summary)
The Inspector General expanded her investigation and found the failure to see that discharged patients get appropriate care is systemic.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

US Loses Psychiatric Beds for Mentally Ill




The following chart is excerpted from  “No Room at the Inn: Trends and Consequences of Closing Public Psychiatric Hospitals 2005-2010” by the Treatment Advocacy Center (http://treatmentadvocacycenter.org)

It compares public hospital beds available for people with mental illness in 2010 vs. 2005; computes the gain or loss; tells how many beds exist per 100,000 residents; and calculates what percent of the minimum beds needed the state has on hand. Based on that percentage, the state is ranked. There is a dramatic shortage of public psychiatric beds in every state. The result is that more people with mental illnesses are being sent to jails, shelters, prisons, and morgues. 


State
Number of psychiatric   beds 2010
Number of   psychiatric beds 2005
Number of   psychiatric beds lost or gained
Percent of psychiatric beds lost or gained
2010 beds/ 100,000 total pop.
Relation to target beds per capita
State Ranking per capita (worst to  to least worst)

Arizona
260
338
-78
-23%
4.1
8%
Tied for Last
Minnesota
206
464
-258
-56%
3.9
8%
Tied for Last
Iowa
149
239
-90
-38%
4.9
10%
48
Michigan
530
1,006
-476
-47%
5.4
11%
47
Arkansas
203
184
19
+10%
7.0
14%
46
Alaska
52
74
-22
-30%
7.3
16%
45
Vermont
52
55
-3
-5%
8.3
17%
44
New Mexico
171
425
-254
-60%
8.3
18%
41
North Carolina
761
1,461
-700
-48%
8.0
18%
41
Ohio
1,058
1,210
-152
-13%
9.2
18%
41
Texas
2,129
2,730
-601
-22%
8.5
19%
40
Rhode Island
108
134
-26
-19%
10.3
20%
37
South Carolina
426
443
-17
-4%
9.2
20%
37
Wisconsin
558
716
-158
-22%
9.8
20%
37
Kentucky
446
646
-200
-31%
10.3
21%
34
Maine
137
166
-29
-17%
10.3
21%
34
Tennessee
616
1,068
-452
-42%
9.7
21%
34
Mass
696
1,015
-319
-31%
10.6
22%
33
Colorado
520
776
-256
-33%
10.3
23%
29
Idaho
155
157
-2
-1%
9.9
23%
29
Illinois
1,429
1,821
-392
-22%
11.1
23%
29
Oklahoma
401
386
15
+4%
10.7
23%
29
Nevada
302
119
183
+153%
11.2
25%
28
Utah
310
329
-19
-6%
11.2
26%
27
Georgia
1,187
1,635
-448
-27%
12.3
27%
26
California
5,283
6,285
-1,002
-16%
14.2
29%
21
Hawaii
182
171
+11
+6%
13.4
29%
21
Indiana
908
1,201
-293
-24%
14.0
29%
23
New Hampshire
189
224
-35
-16%
14.4
29%
23
West Virginia
259
258
-1
0%
14.0
29%
23
Pennsylvania
1,850
2,349
-499
-21%
14.6
30%
20
Washington
1,220
1,170
+50
+4%
18.1
34%
19
Virginia
1,407
1,659
-252
15%
17.6
37%
18
Florida
3,321
2,101
1,220
+58%
17.7
38%
15
Maryland
1,058
1,203
-145
-12%
18.3
38%
15
Nebraska
337
361
-24
-7%
18.5
38%
15
Oregon
700
691
+9
+1%
18.3
39%
14
Louisiana
903
914
-11
-1%
19.9
40%
13
Montana
194
194
0
0%
19.6
42%
12
Connecticut
741
889
-148
-17%
20.7
43%
11
New Jersey
1,922
2,820
-898
-32%
21.9
44%
10
Wyoming
115
122
-7
-6%
20.4
45%
9
Missouri
1,332
1,238
94
+8%
22.2
46%
8
North Dakota
150
164
-14
-9%
22.3
48%
7
Alabama
1,119
1,001
118
+12%
23.4
49%
6
Delaware
209
281
-72
-26%
23.3
51%
4
Kansas
705
594
111
+19%
24.7
51%
4
New York
4,958
5,269
-311
-6%
25.6
52%
3
South Dakota
238
311
-73
-23%
29.2
62%
2
Mississippi
1,156
1,442
-286
-20%
39.0
79%
1
TOTALS
43,318

50,509
-7191

14.1