Consider This: Peer counselors support consumers in emergency rooms
. . .a service innovation
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News: Oregon gives priority to hospitals
At a time when evidence about successful treatments and recovery from mental illnesses minimizes using hospitals, Oregon is spending nearly one billion dollars to build two more for nearly 1,000 beds. Advocates fear this a return to the 19th-century practice favoring isolation in prison-like conditions rather than community treatments. Oregon has already been besieged with problems including suicides, a four-year justice department investigation, and insufficient staffing leading to mandated overtime for nurses, The Statesman-Journal: has embarked on a multi-part series...
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News: Business consolidation of psychiatric services
Psychiatric Solutions, Inc., the for-profit company with allegations of mismanagement detailed in lawsuits, state and federal investigations, and the media most notably Pro Publica, will be acquired by a Fortune 500 management company. . .
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News: PBS airs documentary during Mental Illness Awareness month

News: Ending Medicare hospital cap
Continuing their efforts to end discrimination in Medicare coverage for mental health, Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-MAINE) introduced a bill (S 3028) to end the 190-day lifetime cap on psychiatric hospitalization. . .
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News: Interim parity regulations hailed

News: Psychiatric Solutions: pay raise, lawsuits and a new military contract
Psychiatric Solutions, Inc., a national chain of psychiatric hospitals plagued with state and federal investigations and share-holder lawsuits has received a military contract for serving vets in eight hospitals.. . .
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News: FDA seeks public comment on ECT
The FDA is asking for comment to determine whether it should reclassify ECT to require "reasonable assurance of the safety and effectiveness" of the mechanical devices used for electroconvulsive therapy. ECT was already in use when the FDA codified mechanical devices,
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News: Juvenile detention centers, jails, hospitals fail New Yorkers

Did You Know: Syphillis accounted for about 20 percent of the admissions to mental hospitals 100 years ago.
Read more about this is in the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Illness....
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News: Georgia hospitals unimproved, says judge
Georgia failed to correct problems leading to federal investigations about abuse in psychiatric hospitals, ruled a federal judge. Judge Charles A. Pannell's decision revealed on-going complaints included cases of sexual assault, suspicious deaths, suicide, and physical abuse in the state's seven-hospital system. . .
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News: New model in Oregon hospital

News: Prison chain wants psychiatric hospital

News: Personal narratives of recovery and activism
Three engaging, powerful, personal narratives about managing with a mental illness are available. In the May-June issue of Health Affairs, television news personality Jane Pauley discusses her bipolar disorder, diagnosed when she was 50. And Fred Frese, former president of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and a psychologist who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1966, calls for mental health professionals to come out of the closet. His remarks are also available in a webcam of the Health Affairs conference....
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News: Public vs. private hospital ownership: Florida
A decision not to allow privatization of a Florida state psychiatric hospital ends a controversy which pitted Florida lawmaker, Rep. Janet Adkins, against lobbying interests for Geo Group Inc. Adkins's husband runs an assisted-care facility doing business with Northeast Florida State Hospital. Geo Group, a firm specializing in private prisons, has been acquiring psychiatric hospitals. Privatization would have saved the state $3 million while it tried to close a budget deficit....
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News: Medicaid policies limit clinically indicated drugs
The irony of trying to save Medicaid money might well result in more expensive human, medical and social costs, conclude the authors of a study of Medicaid management of medication. Medicaid drug policies, it seems, constrain access to preferred psychiatric drugs and thereby increase the likelihood of emergency room use, hospitalization or homelessness, say the authors of a new study in the May issue of Psychiatric Services. The authors base their conclusions, that drug management is based "based primarily on...
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News: Montana considers hospital diversion
Three proposals to divert people experiencing a mental health crisis from Warm Springs, the state hospital, into community treatment have widespread support but face a veto from Gov. Brian Schweitzer, reports the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The debate is positioned between those who want to hold the line on spending money for programs for people with mental illness while other budget items have been held in check, versus potential future savings in a state with consistently high suicide rates....
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News: Hospital corporation settles dumping charges
People with untreated mental illness are at risk for homelessness without hospitals dumping them onto the streets. A year-long investigation into College Hospital Costa Mesa, accused of driving discharged patients to Skid Row, a downtown neighborhood with homeless squatters in Los Angeles, resulted in a $1.6 million settlement with the owners. The hospital is one of the properties privately held by College Hospital Enterprises, a company operating two psychiatric hospitals, three skilled nursing facilities, five partial-hospital programs, and two...
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News: More hospitals announce independence
The medical school at Johns Hopkins University announced a two-stage policy of banning gifts to doctors and ending drug samples for patients. The announcement acknowledged "Industry influence may be subtle, and health care providers often are not aware of the extent to which their judgment may be influenced when they depend on industry to support educational activities or provide drug samples.even small gifts imply reciprocity and that in recent years." Johns Hopkins joins Harvard, which announced a similar policy for...
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Consider This: State budget fixes
. . .some will hurt more than others
Full Story | Topics: community programs, depression, hospitals, jails, medication, mental health, politics, states, suicide | Comments (0)

News: Neglect in North Carolina hospital
A North Carolina state hospital has been cited for "immediate jeopardy" and may lose federal funding as a result of actions that came to light after a patient attempted to hang herself last month. She previously attempted suicide and had told the nurses of her plans and strategy on this occasion. The hospital has until the end of the month to address how nurses are expected to manage a life-threatening situation, as recounted in an investigation by the Centers for...
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News: Local mental health programs cut
Services are being curtailed for severally ill children and adults while states slash budgets. Programs slated for downsizing or closing have been reported in: A one-of-a-kind 8-bed program serving about 600 people a year closed in Boise, Idaho . For local residents needing a couple of nights of shelter, the Franklin House helped them avoid using an emergency room and/or hospitalization.The Franklin House budget ran $325,000 but observers guess ER services will cost more. Eleven of 21 clinics in rural...
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Consider This: Highway to wellness
. . .includes mental health
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News: Psychiatric hospitalizations increasing
After nearly five decades of a steady drop in the numbers of people admitted to state psychiatric hospitals, a reversal might be underway say the authors of a study appearing in Psychiatric Services. Between 2002 and 2005, and based on patterns in 11 states, admissions increased 21 percent and the number of residents increased by 1 percent. The authors question the implications of this reversal for community-based mental health care. Medicare parity An article appearing in Journal of the American...
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News: Martin Ramirez art exhibit in New York
The work of Martin Ramirez who was hospitalized for 30 years with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, is on display at the American Museum of Folk Art, in New York. Ramirez died in 1963 and spent the last 15 years of his life in DeWitt State Hospital, a military barracks in California that was converted into a psychiatric hospital after World War II. It was one of the hospitals singled out for over-crowding and for poor standards of care in the...
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Did You Know: In 1955, there were 560,000 people in state hospitals.
Read more about the movement to empty state psychiatric hospitals....
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News: Patients at risk in North Carolina hospitals
Even before it was learned that a patient had been restrained inappropriately with his face held down, accreditation of North Carolina's hospitals was in jeopardy because of widespread patient neglect. That incident was yesterdays news, along with the documentation contained in 131-page federal report. Today's News Observer reports the sexual assault of a psychiatric patient at different hospital, Cherry Hospital. The technician involved in the assault was not fired until three weeks after the incident, the same day a reporter...
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News: States in trouble
South Carolina announced cuts of at least 12 percent to its mental health budget. This will come as a result of closing programs, staff cuts, a freeze on hiring, and eliminaitng 75 in-patient beds. The projected $26 million reduction might increase by another $7.8 million. Advocates worry that the impact of reducing services will be transferred to emergency rooms, jails and homeless shelters. Elsewhere: A spike in anxiety, depression and suicide risks in Denver. In New York, reports the Poughkeepsie...
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News: For-profits slated for Georgia's psychiatric hospitals
Plans are underway to replace Georgia's public psychiatric hospitals with a system operated by for-profit private ownership. Documents obtained by the Atlantic Journal-Constitution indicate some mental health officials are fast-tracking the transformation, once considered an experiment, to begin in 2009 with a consolidation of forensic services for mentally ill inmates. Children and adolescent units close will close, adult programs will be consolidated and new buildings are proposed. Not all state officials share the enthusiasm of the commissioner of human...
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From Our Readers: Esmin Green remembered
David Gonzalez writes about a demonstration remembering Esmin Green.
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Did You Know: One in five hospitalizations is due to a mental disorder.
Read the report based on 2006 data from the Agency for Health Research and Quality....
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News: Costs of treatment
About 6 people in 100 will suffer from a serious mental disorder in any given year. When treatment requires hospitalization, the length of stay is nearly double that of other stays (8.2 days versus 4.6 days) according to a government report....
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Commentary: Overcrowded psychiatric emergency rooms

Did You Know: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Jack Nicholson, won five Oscars in the 1976 Academy Awards.
Read more about this film....
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News: England's new law on forced treatments
iStock PhotoLaws compelling outpatient treatment took effect in England earlier in the week, and the controversy mirrors debates in the US. Proponents argue mandatory treatment reduces hospitalization and promotes public safety while critics oppose coercion and point to considerable side effects. Results inconclusive In the end, reports the Guardian, analysis of 28 studies led experts to conclude, "There is very little evidence to suggest that CTOs [community treatment orders] are associated with any positive outcomes and there is justification for...
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News: Company cuts mobile services
A home visit. iStock PhotoMental health teams employed by Palmetto Lowcountry Behavioral Health will stop offering on-call mobile services in Charleston, South Carolina, which is likely to increase use of emergency rooms where people can wait days for service. Palmetto, which was funded in the 1980s, was purchased by Psychiatric Solutions, Inc., a Tenn. corporation, in 2004. The company owns a chain of hospitals, out-patient services, and wilderness programs in 31 states, with seven facilities in South Carolina, and anticipates...
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News: Global mental health challenges
photo:iStock World Mental Health Day was the occasion for reports calling attention to the global marginalization of psychiatric conditions. A general assessment from the editors of The Lancet notes: "mental ill-health is likely to have been underestimated because the connection with other health conditions is often ignored. Worse still, the availability, accessibility, and quality of health services is poor and inequitable." Plans are underway for an international mental health summit next year in Athens. Ghana Officials in Ghana are joyful...
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Did You Know: Journalist Nellie Bly went undercover in 1887 to write Ten Days in a Mad-House, an expose` of the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island.
Click here to read this book....
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Did You Know: People with a psychiatric diagnosis accounted for 7.6 million hospital admissions in 2005.
Read the report from Healthcare for Uninsured....
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Did You Know: The number of private psychiatric hospitals declined to 269 in 2000 from 475 in 1992.
Read more from a SAMHSA report (p. 56)....
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News: Oregon closes "Cuckoo's Nest" hospital
The hospital where "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed in the 1970s has been closed. Built in 1883, it came to represent the horrors of in-patient psychiatric treatment. Two new hospitals, plus community-based clinics, will replace the Salem facility where, the Statesman Journal reports, an investigation once found the remains of 3,600 patients who had been cremated....
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News: Emergency room backup
South Carolina is experiencing a crisis in its emergency rooms. According to Charleston's Post and Courier, to address the problem attributed to a decline in long-term beds, the Mental Health Department set aside roughly $5 million toward that effort by opening 10 beds at a crisis unit in Charleston and offering a mobile crisis unit for the area. Also, the agency is providing short-term emergency housing for homeless patients and buying medicine for them to stockpile between visits....
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News: Update North Carolina: hospital closes ward following death
North Carolina officials announced they have closed the adult psychiatric ward and fired 16 people after last week's disclosure that a 50-year old patient, whom the staff ignored for 22 hours, died in April....
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News: Georgia slashes budget
The Atlantic Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia is considering slashing its mental health budget by as much as $77.5 million. Cuts of that amount, about 10 percent, throw into question improvements to the tarnished hospital system currently under investigation for reports of patient abuse and suspicious deaths. Officials are considering contracting with private psychiatric hospitals, a cheaper alternative than fixing, pending the justice department findings. Citizen activists worry the solutions will look good on paper while people with a mental illness...
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News: Video captures death and staff neglect
The North Carolina News & Observer reports a 50-year old psychiatric patient died at Cherry Hill Hospital after 22 hours in a chair in a busy room, where he choked on medicine while nurses played cards and talked on the phone. He was neglected through four shifts, and ate nothing the day of his death. Also at Cherry Hill, and also recorded on video, came reports earlier this month of an incident in which a psychiatrist scuffled and struck a...
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News: Georgia hospitals still failing
Today's Atlantic Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia's state hospitals failed another inspection, this time in July, "despite a $3.4 million "turnaround" plan that was supposed to address persistently dangerous conditions." They include overcrowding, abuse, over-medication, suspicious deaths, poor staffing. and failure to record incidents. This is an on-going problem which the Atlantic Journal-Constitution has been tracking....
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Book Reviews: "The Insanity Offense," E. Fuller Torrey
reviewed by Sue E. Estroff* By Any Means Necessary? By No Means Necessary E. Fuller Torrey's most recent book, The Insanity Offense, continues his literary style of provocative, catastrophic language when referring to violent incidents attributable to people with psychiatric disorders. This is not a work in the scholarly convention. It is one activist psychiatrist's impassioned and purposeful argument for a reversion of mental health law, policy, and treatment to the 1950's when involuntary confinement and forced treatment qua medication...
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News: Shocking death in psychiatric emergency room
A video, now on YouTube, recorded the conspicuous neglect of a patient waiting in the psychiatric emergency room for more than 24 hours while staff ignored her writhing in pain, falling from a chair, lying on the floor of New York City's Kings County Hospital. The incident took place June 19, and the video was provided as part of a routine release of evidence in a law suit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The New York...
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MIWatch webcasts: Maria Angelina Ortiz
Panelist Maria Angelina Ortiz addresses an audience at the open forum to discus pre-booking jail diversion programs in New York City, sponsored by RIPPD, June 4, 2008. Ortiz, a parent, discusses a first-time experience calling 911 when her son had a psychiatric emergency needing hospitalization....
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Track Legislation: H.R. 5605
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) introduced the Physician Payments Sunshine Act of 2008 on March 12, 2008: “To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to provide for transparency in the relationship between physicians and manufacturers of drugs, devices, or medical supplies for which payment is made under Medicare, Medicaid, or SCHIP.”
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Track Legislation: S. 2029
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced the Physician Payments Sunshine Act of 2007 on September 5, 2007: “To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to provide for transparency in the relationship between physicians and manufacturers of drugs, devices, or medical supplies for which payment is made under Medicare, Medicaid, or SCHIP.”
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News: Dept. of Justice scores Georgia hospitals
The Justice Department's list of problems in Georgia's state hospitals amounted to a scathing attack on the state psychiatric hospitals which have been investigated on and off by different government agencies since 1999. Suicides, razors, sexual assaults, general mayhem and gang fights on the adolescent unit, and the inappropriate hospitalization of those with developmental disabilities are among the specifics in a 65-page letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue. The lengthy investigation included all aspects of the system despite Georgia's challenge...
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News: Overuse of psychiatric nursing homes
The Hartford Courant reports an excessive number of psychiatric admissions to nursing homes will cost Conn. $6.5 million in Medicaid reimbursements....
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News: Vermont hospital closing delayed
According to the Argus Times, plans to close the Vermont State Hospital have been for postponed. Major deficits, documented in 37-page report from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in 2005, led the federal government to halt reimbursements, but acute-care alternatives have not been found....
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News: North Carolina: memogate and upended reform
The North Carolina News Observer learned of a standing order to destroy memos and emails after running a series about the “poorly executed mental health reform plan” in early March, leading to a “memogate” crisis for Gov. Mike Easley. The bad news keeps coming. Spending $400 million to outsource community services to private companies, North Carolina experienced staggering shortages and poor staffing for people needing mental health service. Since 2000, in state run hospitals, at least 82 patients died...
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Consider This: All hail a muscular press
Hail a muscular press
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Announcements: Award winning stories
Three stories reporting about the impact of mental illness on family relationships, and the neglect of patient care leading to a federal investigation were among those recognized for excellent journalism at the 10th annual Health Care Journalism held in Washington, D.C., March 27-30. The stories, reporters and categories: Large newspapers: Alan Judd and Andy Miller's 10-part series about the suspicious deaths of 115 people in Georgia’s psychiatric hospitals between 2002-2006 led to an investigation by the Justice Department. A Hidden...
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News: Hospital name controversial
Controversy surrounds reclaiming the name of a West Virginia psychiatric hospital built before the Civil War, the "Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum." "As a consumer of mental health services and an advocate, I'm personally offended by the term 'lunatic asylum,” said a spokesperson for the West Virginia Mental Health Consumers Association. A historical consultant for the 306-acre property doesn't get it, and compared these sentiments to Soviet style revisionist history. The new owners intend the property to host mud-bog truck racing....
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News: Paradoxical priorities for youth
With the release of new reports about the devastating effects of poverty on the growth of infant brains, a study from The National Center for Children in Poverty is particularly disturbing. Towards Better Behavioral Health for Children, Youth and their Families suggests that despite record funding for children and adolescents, it is disproportionately spent on residential treatment and psychiatric hospitals instead of the community-based interventions for families and children that could help avert later mental health problems....
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News: Alarming cuts in Cal.
Cost-cutting in Sonoma County, California, will close an acute unit of Santa Rosa Community Hospital, plus two off-site units, and lay off 212 people. This comes in the midst of proposed budget slashing for health and education...
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News: Report slams Delaware Psychiatric Center
A bipartisan committee of Delaware’s General Assembly released a blistering report about problems in the Delaware Psychiatric Center. It spared no words on the administration which it said failed to address "an atmosphere of abuse, neglect and intimidation.” In the past six months, The News Journal published 130 articles exposing numerous incidents – some based on staff and whistle blowers, others on family or former patients – about threats to patient safety, assaults, rape, professional weakness, and general administrative mismanagement...
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News: Price tags for care
Americans spent $56 billion for treating mental disorders (including depression) in 2005, making it the fourth most costly of the nation’s medical expenses. When traumatic disorders are added – PTSD, anxiety or panic attacks—it brings the total to $128 billion. The full report is available online at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality....
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News: Oregon’s hospitals unsafe
Restraints, assaults and environmental hazards, failure to monitor, to report and to protect are just a few of the threats to patient safety described in an on-line report of a Justice Department investigation into Oregon’s state hospital system. More than 600 patients receive treatment in two state facilities, including the Salem site, built in the 1880s....
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News: Hiring in Georgia's hospitals
Proposals to revamp Georgia’s state run psychiatric hospitals include hiring board certified psychiatrists and a pay hike for workers responsible for most contact with patients. The Atlantic Journal-Constitution reports that they earn less than fast-food workers. As a result of the newspaper's earlier reporting of 136 suspicious deaths since 2002, the US Justice Department is currently investigating the state's seven hospitals. Related Three-day wait in Georgia's ERs Georgia dissed discharge planning...
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Consider This: The other 398,150
by Phyllis Vine

How does strengthening commitment laws help people who need service in the community? Budget shortfall or not, Virginia needs to do more than pay lip service to needed reforms.


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News: Law suits and pay hikes
Psychiatric Solutions, the for-profit corporation owning psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment programs for youth, landed on the Forbes list of America’s Best Big Companies of 2007. With managers who cut their teeth on Nashville’s Corrections Corporation of America, and Hospital Corporation of America, this should not surprise. Still the stock was downgraded recently by Credit Suisse to underperform. According to SEC filings, the company recently approved pay hikes for its managers. In an unrelated incident, another law suit charging sexual...
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News: Race differences in England's hospitals
Hospitalization for African Caribbean blacks living in England is three times higher than for others. The pattern speaks to a growing racial segregation in psychiatric hospitals. Admissions for blacks have increased every year since 2005 while the total number of public beds declined. At the same time treatments in private hospitals grew, according to a story from the BBC....
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News: Three-day wait in Georgia's ERs
Psychiatric care in Georgia's emergency rooms can be delayed for up to three days according to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution . As a result of full capacity in the state hospitals, the wait has averaged 39 hours in the past four months. Private hospitals have been asked to take the overflow, but they are also feeing the crunch. Georgia is still the subject of a federal investigation following the newspaper's series, "A Hidden Shame," documenting physical and sexual...
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News: Upgrade for child mental health in UK
Following disclosures that kids are often treated in adult mental health wards because there are insufficient resources, Britain’s Health Minister Ivan Lewis vowed, "within two years no child under 16 would be treated on an adult psychiatric ward." The BBC reports that the government is committing £30m to pay for new beds and move others to more appropriate locations....
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News: Psychiatric hospitals ban smoke
National Public Radio reports that psychiatric hospitals are beginning to enforce a non-smoking policy for patients. The calming effect of cigarettes can be traced to the impact of nicotine on dompamine, and for years many hospitals actually distributed cigarettes to reward good behavior. The ready availability of nicotine substitutes and heightened concern for cardiovascular disease are competing concerns. NPR noted that St. Elizabeth's in Washington, D.C., prepared for last January's change in policy with classes, pills, gum, and patches. Although...
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News: Specifying care for an emergency
The Infinite Mind rebroadcast "An Educated Consumer," which originally aired in 2005, discussing Psychiatric Advance Directives (PAD). PADs are legal documents directing treatment teams what to do when it is impossible for a consumer to convey his or her wishes. They can address symptomatic behavior, or which medications work along with those to be avoided. PADs also name who may visit, or speak with a physician, what interventions (ECT, for example) should be employed or avoided. Consumers, family and...
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News: Shortage of doctors, beds
A shortage of psychiatrists and beds in Virginia has crippled access to treatment and led to excessive reliance on emergency rooms, according to an article in The Washington Post. A report released by the Virginia General Assembly, on which the Washington Post story was based, also said existing resources were not well distributed and the crisis is particularly acute in child psychiatry....
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Consider This: Wall Street eyes psychiatric care
by Phyllis Vine
Wall Street believes there's money to be made in conglomerates owning psychiatric services. Some of these companies have been acquiring hospitals and treatment programs in anticipation of changing federal law. What does this mean for who shapes treatments leading to recovery, and who benefits?
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News: Children's Hospital Faulted
A Washington, D.C., children's psychiatric hospital has been accused of neglecting and abusing children. Riverside Hospital has been followed for the past decade by federal regulators for intermittent concerns about staff choking, slapping, shoving, in addition to the use of medication to subdue and punish. The complaint was brought by University Legal Services, Inc., and an attorney for the hospital said they did not learn of the report until they received an inquiry from the Washington Post to comment on...
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News: Emergency rooms as last resort
Boston Globe, July 15, 2007 Paul Krugman began today's New York Times editorial slamming George Bush for a callous remark about the availability of emergency rooms for people lacking health insurance. Along similar line's, yesterday's Boston Globe carried a story about strained emergency room services for a psychiatric crisis. In local Boston hospitals this resulted in 21 complaints, such as staff assaults on patients, broken limbs, and improper restraints contributing to one death....
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News: Georgia dissed discharge planning
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 24, 2007 Reports of overcrowding and failed discharge planning are the subject of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's sixth story in series investigating Georgia's mental health system. The U.S. Department of Justice is currently investigating why more than 5,000 patients were discharged to bus stations, homeless shelters, or motels, only to return 40 or more times. Between 2002-2006, 115 people died in a state hospitals, there were 190 cases of physical and sexual abuse, and another 10 people died...
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News: VA's Puget Sound flunks assessment, flunks vets
VA officials were aware of problems, yet failed to improve patient safety at Puget Sound's hospitals, according to a report issued by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations. In an unusual step, the commission recommended a "preliminary denial of accreditation." The report was made public by Washington's Sen. Patty Murray. Murray then called for an emergency meeting, and described a "lack of leadership." That was before she heard that information about a patient who harmed himself...
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News: Australia boosts mental health budget
ABC news, May 31, 2007 The government of Australia’s Premier Peter Beattie has submitted a four-year plan for expanding treatment and services for people with a mental illness. The proposal includes more clinicians, expanding hospital beds, and increasing outpatient services to stem the high suicide rate. Yet supporters of the policy are critical that the $530 million budget to cover the needed improvements comes from taxing new cars....
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News: North Carolina caps beds at psychiatric hospitals
When short-term wards of North Carolina's state psychiatric hospitals reach 110% of capacity, the facilities will stop accepting transfers from community hospitals, according to mental health officials. Advocates and family members worry that implementing such a policy will cause back ups in community hospitals and emergency rooms, and that the system will be inflexible for people in crisis. Some hospitals have seen a 10 percent hike in admissions in the past year....
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