(Sept. 6, 2013) As if the shortage of psychiatric beds across the country were not dire enough already, a growing proportion of the state hospital beds that do exist are being filled by forensic patients – people who have committed crimes, often as a result of untreated mental illness.
Typical of the trend is North Dakota State Hospital in Jamestown. The number of forensic evaluations conducted at the hospital has more than doubled since 2007, going from 38 annual evaluations to 80 per year, according to the hospital’s clinical director (“State Hospital staff dealing with more forensic evaluations,” Aug. 28).
Dr. Rosalie Etherington, clinical director for adult inpatient psychiatric and chemical dependency services, said most of the recent evaluations were competency evaluations for people suffering from untreated mental illness who were charged with serious crimes.
"When you couple somebody's willingness to commit crimes with a mental illness, that's not a good combination," she said.
North Dakota’s mental health treatment law is a decent one. It allows individuals suffering from mental illness an opportunity to receive treatment, either in the community or a hospital, before they are dangerous.
The state should be focusing its efforts on using its law and getting treatment to people before a crisis – and before they end up occupying one of the state’s scarce psychiatric beds.
For more information about public hospital bed shortages, see our 2012 study, "No Room at the Inn: Trends and Consequences of Closing Public Psychiatric Beds."
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