Facts about Pennsylvania Mental Health System and Violence
List of Acts of violence by untreated mentally ill in PA
http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/states/Pennsylvania/preventabletragediesPA.pdf
Pennyslvania needs 3800 more psychiatric beds for the most
seriously ill assuming they had perfect services
Chart two at http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/imd/shortage-hosp-beds.pdf
Pennsylvanians are 2X as likely to be incarcerated for
mental illness as hospitalized
http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/NGRI/jails-vs-hospitals.html
5000 of the most seriously ill Pennsylvanians should be
under Assisted Outpatient Treatment (a court order to stay in community treatment
due to the fact they had previous violence, arrest, homelessness or
hospitalization associated with going off treatment. Seeing they receive AOT
would cut costs to PA taxpayers by $260 million by replacing more expensive
jails, prisons and hospitals with less expensive community care.
http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/national-studies/aotbystatecosts.html
Violence
People with mental illness are not more violent than others,
but people with serious mental illnesses (schizophrenia, severe bipolar) who
are left without treatment are more violent than others especially if they have
a history of violence.
http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/consequences/mental-illness-violence-stats.html
Violence on psychiatric workers
As a result of our failure to provide mandatory and
monitored treatment for persons with serious mental illness until after they
become danger to self or others, psychiatric workplaces are becoming
increasingly dangerous. The New York Times reported that “According to the
federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, half of all nonfatal injuries resulting
from workplace assaults occur in health care and social service settings. …The
most dangerous settings are psychiatric units and nursing homes, where patients
are often confused, disoriented or suffering from mental ailments.” (Tuller 2008)
- • A study of 348 inpatients in a Virginia state psychiatric hospital found that patients who refused to take medication "were more likely to be assaultive, were more likely to require seclusion and restraint, and had longer hospitalizations." Kasper JA, Hoge SK, Feucht-Haviar T et. al. Prospective study of patients’ refusal of antipsychotic medication under a physician discretion review procedure. American Journal of Psychiatry 1997;154:483–489.
- Officials at Napa State Hospital in California logged about
3,000 acts of aggression against patients and staff in 2012. This may not be
surprising since 90% of patients admitted to the six state psychiatric hospital
in California get there only after being channeled through the criminal justice
system.
- Psychiatric nurses are frequent victims of workplace
violence, much of which is perpetrated by patients
- The American Psychiatric Nurses Association Position Paper
on Workplace Violence quoted research showing 75% to 100% of nursing staff on
acute psychiatric units have been assaulted during their careers; 62% of
psychiatric clinical staff and 28% of nonclinical staff reported that patients
assaulted them at least once and 28% of clinical staff and 12% of nonclinical
staff reported an assault within the last 6 months. It quoted research showing the
rate of nonfatal, job-related violent crime among general medical physicians is
16.2 per 1,000 while for psychiatrists and mental health professionals, the
rate is 68.2 per 1,000.
To reduce violence in the workplace, the APNA endorses the use of violence prediction metrics based on the fact that those who are violent in the past are most likely to be violent in the future. It is important to note that the non-profit community based mental health industry strongly opposes this approach arguing instead that violence is not associated with mental illness and can not be predicted. They are wrong
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