Mentally Ill Shift From Care to Jails - There are more behind bars in Virginia than are in mental wards

As with gay rights, the need for mental health care is something Virginia would prefer to simply sweep under the rug and ignore. This article from the Richmond Times Dispatch (http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-10-10-0117.html) should be a state wide embarrassment. Sadly, most Virginians, especially those preaching "family values," do not seem to care or be embarrassed. Perhaps the family values crowd is once again literally applying the Bible and, therefore, believe that those in need of mental health care are sinners and possessed by demons? Hence, why take care of their needs. Virginia likes to think of itself as moving into the category of at least somewhat progressive states, but these figures prove sadly otherwise. Here are some story high lights:

Almost four decades after Virginia began emptying the mental wards of its state hospitals, jails across Virginia now house more people with mental illness than state and private hospitals combined. Of the 6,350 mentally ill people in hospitals or jails on a single day two years ago, 60 percent were in jails. And 43 percent of jails responding to a state commission's query said regional mental-health agencies do not provide mental-health services.

In 1936, only one person with mental illness was in jail for every six in state hospitals. In 2005, that ratio had gone to five people in jail for every two in a hospital. Those are among the statistics compiled in a 200-page report released yesterday by the General Assembly's Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.

Virginia has 40 cities and 95 counties. Seven of the state's localities have more than half the roughly 1,500 psychiatrists in the state. Forty-seven localities have none; 87 localities don't have a child psychiatrist. The sobering analysis yesterday left legislators with few questions and state mental-health officials with few answers as evidence continues to mount about the state's system of mental-health care. Most of the issues have been festering for years and have been brought to the forefront by the mass killings at Virginia Tech in April by mentally ill student Seung-Hui Cho.

[T]he report found vast disparities in the quality of care from one jurisdiction to another and a failure by state agencies and local mental-health agencies to follow state laws mandating how patients are to be assessed and singled out for care. JLARC found that a decade-old state law requiring public hearings and regulations to set payment rates for temporary detentions has never been implemented. The rates are set unilaterally by the state Department of Medical Assistance Services.

Nor have state laws enacted 25 years ago been followed that require regulations for pre-screening procedures for patients entering state hospitals. As a result, some state hospitals have simply declined to admit some groups of patients who once received care. Those people include patients with dementia, substance-abuse problems and traumatic brain-injuries, according to JLARC.

In sum, it is NOT a pretty picture. Small wonder that Seung-Hui Cho did not receive proper mental health treatment and that he was allowed to be on campus with no one knowing how potentially dangerous he was.