Patients who need mental and behavioral health services full of Pennsylvania emergency rooms and hospitals have nowhere to send them.
HARIZBURG, Pennsylvania - The impact of the pandemic on mental health is once again focusing on the lack of treatment options. There is a mental health crisis throughout the country and beyond.
Patients who need behavioral health care full of Pennsylvania emergency rooms and hospitals have nowhere to send them.
“It’s heartbreaking. “People stay in the emergency room because there is no psychological help,” said Heather Tyler, vice president of the State Legislative Advocacy Association of Hospitals and the Pennsylvania Health System.
Doctors across the country have noticed a drastic increase in the number of people who need emergency services, crisis-level services and post-hospital care.
However, there is a serious shortage of mental health providers and treatment programs in the Commonwealth. The waiting period for admission to an institution for some families is endless.
“The waiting list can be 1,000 people long,” Tyler added. “What is happening is that as the crisis increases, and these are the same things we all live with - inflation, higher wages, supply chain problems - services are harder to provide. Counties are increasingly stressed and unable to provide community support or support at home or support in crisis situations. ”
FOX43 reveals that patients stay in the emergency department for days, sometimes weeks, while doctors are frantically looking for treatment options. Doctors at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health had to refer patients to institutions in Philadelphia for treatment.
Tyler said that a doctor in Pennsylvania tried to call 400 treatment facilities in order to find the right accommodation for a small child who needs mental health services.
Without increasing government funding for more than a decade, doctors are watching the state’s mental health care system collapse before their eyes.
“We really need to do a better job as a system to create more opportunities for individuals with behavioral health needs to receive care at a less restrictive level,” said Tracy Lavalias, executive director of behavioral health at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.
In February 2021, 39.8% of adults in Pennsylvania reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, and 25.7% could not receive the necessary counseling or therapy, according to the National Alliance for Mental Illness.
A recent HAP study reveals that 1 in 6 children between the ages of 6 and 17 experience mental health disorders, and less than 47 percent of adults living with mental illness receive therapy.
Doctors are worried about the dangers that people pose to themselves and others if they are in the middle of a crisis and are unable to get the help they need.
“As part of the illness, people may feel like they don’t want to continue living or do something that would hurt themselves or that they are out of control and inadvertently hurt someone else,” said Dr. Erika Saunders, who works in the Department of psychiatry and behavioral health at Penn State Health.
Several stakeholders, including hospitals, are urging lawmakers to increase state funding for district mental health programs by $ 28 million, with an additional $ 13 million for district mental health funding to help emergency departments.
There is also pressure to pass Law 1644, which establishes complex care transition teams to help when hospital treatment, psychiatric treatment, or other settings are unable to discharge patients.
“Now is the time for policymakers to invest more in counties and provide them with funding for the mental health line to provide programs that all families in Pennsylvania need,” Tyler said.
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