(June 1, 2016) Nearly 20% of the hospital beds for the nation's most severely ill and dangerous psychiatric patients were eliminated in the last five years, at the same time demand for them skyrocketed, according to new Treatment Advocacy Center research released today.
Going, Going, Gone: Trends and Consequences of Eliminating State Psychiatric Beds, 2016 reports that the nation's psychiatric bed shortage has deteriorated to "beyond disastrous." The survey of the states found only 3.5% of the state hospital beds that existed in 1955 were still in operation by the first quarter of 2016.
Of the remaining beds, approximately half were occupied by patients charged or convicted of crimes, leaving about 6 state hospital beds per 100,000 people for civil patients, the study reported. By comparison, the average number of psychiatric beds in the 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is 68 beds per 100,000 people, virtually all of them public.
"These beds represent the psychiatric equivalent of ICU patient beds," said John Snook, executive director. "Their loss has been disastrous for our nation and those most in need."
The study found a host of consequences from the bed shortage, including near-universal "boarding" of psychiatric patients in hospital emergency rooms, widespread waiting lists for hospital admission from jails and prisons, and pending or threatened civil rights lawsuits against states from coast to coast. States struggling to cope with surging demand for inpatient services for mentally ill criminal offenders increasingly resort to reducing access to last-resort hospital beds for non-offenders.
"A bed shell game with life-and-death implications has ensued" in which "one population benefits somewhat, at the expense of the other," the study said.
Going, Going, Gone is the Treatment Advocacy Center's fourth survey of psychiatric bed populations since 2008. Combining data collection in every state and the District of Columbia with statistics developed for the federal government, it represents the most complete and up-to-date source of state hospital bed data available, including the number of civil and forensic beds remaining in every state.
To see the Treatment Advocacy Center's recommendations for addressing the growing crises that denying access to last-resort hospital beds creates and to see where your own state ranks in the nation, read Going, Going, Gone: Trends and Consequences of Eliminating State Psychiatric Beds, 2016 now.