Waiting 76 Days For A Psych Bed: A Dwindling Supply Forces Families To Wait Days In Hallways

by

Overcrowded hospitals. Patients on gurneys in hallways

(10-24-22) How long must you wait to get a loved one into a psych bed in your community?

The last time that I checked, the average wait time nationally in a hospital emergency room for a NON-LIFE threatening emergency was four hours. The average wait time for a psychiatric problem was FOUR DAYS.

We all know why. It started with the closing of state mental hospitals and got worse with little funding for community services. Hospitals traditionally lose money on psych beds. They make much more of surgical and other beds. So hospitals began shutting down they psychiatric wards. Many ERs are reluctant to accept patients in the midst of a psychiatric crisis. The requirement of immediate danger gives some hospitals an excuse for turning folks away. Those with the most serious illnesses – schizophrenia – are the quickest to be shown the doors.

My former employer, The Washington Post, published an example of what is happening today because of our dwindling supply of psychiatric beds.  Thank you Reporter William Wan for educating the public about this travesty.

An autistic teen needed mental health help. He spent weeks in an ER instead.

Zach Chafos languished for a total of 76 days in a Maryland ER waiting for a psychiatric bed — part of a growing mental health treatment crisis for teens across the country

By 
Reprinted from The Washington Post.

By his fourth week waiting for help in the emergency room, Zachary Chafos’s skin had turned pale white from lack of sun.

His mother, Cheryl Chafos, bathed her autistic teenage son daily in the ER’s shower, trying to scrub the sickly pallor off him. His father, Tim Chafos, held the 18-year-old’s hand, trying to soothe his son’s pain and confusion over what was happening.

They’d brought Zach to Howard County General Hospital on Nov. 12, 2020, amid a severe mental crisis. All his life, he’d been the joyful center of their family. But after months of pandemic isolation, Zach had become uncontrollably angry and begun physically assaulting his parents and his younger brothers.

Zach with his mother Cheryl and his two younger brothers Christopher, 8 and Anthony, 12, on April 21, 2021 (Family photo) (Family photo)

Now he and his parents found themselves in medical purgatory, waiting for psychiatric treatment that never seemed to arrive. Every day, Zach’s case manager in the ER would call to see if a psychiatric bed had opened up. Every day, the answer was no.

In the state of Maryland, there are roughly 1,040 licensed psychiatric beds for adults in general and private hospitals and another 240 for children and teens. The majority are almost always full.

As a result, patients rushed to the emergency room often spend days or even weeks waiting for beds to open up in psychiatric hospitals and wards. The younger the patients are, and the more severe their cases, the fewer beds there are, and the longer they often wait.

The problem is a national one, with kids and teens from California to Maine languishing in ERs. Many are deeply depressed or suicidal — mental health issues that were already on the rise before the pandemic but have since reached unprecedented levels.

A children’s hospital in Colorado became so overloaded last year with psychiatric patients that it declared a state of emergency. A group representing more than 200 other children’s hospitals warned that the number of kids showing up in mental crisis has far outstripped resources.

But the situation is especially acute in Maryland, whose emergency rooms suffer from some of the country’s longest average wait times for those in need of psychiatric treatment.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING THIS STORY.

 

Print Friendly and PDF
About the author:

Pete Earley is the bestselling author of such books as The Hot House and Crazy. When he is not spending time with his family, he tours the globe advocating for mental health reform.

Learn more about Pete.