State hospital system’s workforce shrinkage has kept more than 700 of its 2,300-bed...
KERRVILLE – Overlooking the Guadalupe River in this bucolic city northwest of San Antonio, the sleek new facility at the Kerrville State Hospital was designed to offer the latest in modern inpatient psychiatric treatment.
And everyone agrees the backup at the psychiatric hospitals is failing thousands of mentally ill patients, who at best languish in cells while waiting for a treatment bed, and at worst“This has been going on for many years,” Rep. Toni Rose said at a House budget hearing last week. Rose represents Dallas, where the Morning News recently reported a mentally ill patient had been. She said she had tracked the growth of the lengthy waitlist problem since 2001, when she worked at the facility.
Some are declared not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity. Most are people charged with serious crimes whose psychiatric disorders are so severe that they are considered incapable of standing trial. Mental health staffers use medication, therapy and time to restore their mental competency enough to face charges in a courtroom.
Forensic patients also typically spend more time in psychiatric hospitals than civil commitments. In addition to restoring their competency, for example, staffers also must guide forensic patients through a months-long course on the criminal justice system, adding time to their commitment, said Andy Keller, chief executive of the nonprofit Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.
The Bexar County jail had 288 inmates awaiting competency restoration, Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, added at last week’s budget meeting. Of those, he said, 44 had been there more than 500 days.
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