(Aug. 11, 2016) Union representatives and about two dozen state psychologists, social workers and direct-care personnel this week urged Maryland officials to reopen state psychiatric facilities and hire more hospital staff, arguing that these steps could relieve pressure on jails and eliminate wait lists as a backlog of people await court-ordered psychological evaluations (“Mental-health advocates say Maryland desperately needs more hospital staff,” the Washington Post, Aug. 8).
“The state already has the buildings,” said Laura Butler, a Maryland social worker. “It just needs to hire the staff, and the problem is solved.”
In fact, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has more than 500 staff vacancies, according to figures released by the AFSCME Maryland Council 3, the largest union representing Maryland public employees.
Advocates say the department must fill many of those vacancies in order to begin to address the problem.
In May, the health department reported that 84 inmates were on wait lists to undergo psychological evaluations. The state detains those people in jails, which are not designed to provide the treatment they need, often for weeks at a time.
Since 2010, Maryland has eliminated 108 of its already severely limited number of state psychiatric beds. The state currently maintains just 15.8 beds per 100,000 population – far below the 50-bed minimum standard considered necessary in order to provide adequate treatment for residents suffering with mental illness.
Consultants for the state estimated in 2012 that the hospitals needed more than 200 additional beds, but the health secretary at the time rejected that conclusion.
Warehousing people suffering from psychiatric illnesses in jails rather than sending them to hospitals that are equipped to provide treatment is cruel and unusual punishment.
People with severe mental illness in Maryland deserve #aBedInstead of incarceration.
Read the 2016 Treatment Advocacy Center report “Going, Going, Gone: Trends and Consequences of Eliminating State Psychiatric Beds” to learn more about the psychiatric bed shortage in Maryland and across the country. And visit #aBedInstead for information about our national psychiatric bed campaign.
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