Bipolar Today

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The Los Angeles Times just ran an article about the shortcomings of recent cutbacks to psychiatric facilities in the state. People who are having serious episodes of mental illness, including people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are housed in emergency rooms for up to 72 hours while spots are found for them in mental health facilities or until their episodes pass. Many of those so housed are uninsured, and so the hospitals end up eating the cost. Moreover, the legal consequences of this are complex, as emergency rooms lack the legal authority to hold the patients more than 24 hours, but do not believe it is safe to release them back into the community.

Commentary

This article shows how cutbacks don’t always save money. Having the mentally ill stay in emergency rooms rather than have sufficient care facilities available for them is far more expensive, since emergency rooms are simply more expensive to maintain per patient than mental health facilities. It would seem that whatever side of the political spectrum one is from, providing better targeted services for less money ought to be seen as a plus. The cutbacks that were supposed to save money are costing money, so with more attention, one hopes that this situation will be resolved in the future.

On a side note, I don’t usually like to take people to task on their language, but could the L.A. Times not have found a phrase other than “baby-sitting” to refer to what emergency rooms are doing? I realize that they are trying to contrast monitoring people with providing proper treatment, but using the term “baby-sitting” implies that people with mental illnesses can be baby-sat. I can’t think of any way that using the term here can be interpreted in a non-offensive manner.

Related posts:

1. Mental Illness in California Prisons
2. Iowa Mental Health Court Helps Keep Mentally Ill out of Prison
3. “Veteran’s Voices” Helps Mentally Ill Vets
4. China Mandates That Mentally Ill Be Reported To Public Security
5. Study Examines Role of Mentally Ill Fathers