The mental health crisis in Sacramento is getting worse. We need a plan to turn things around.
On a recent Monday, I began my clinical rounds at UC Davis Medical Center’s emergency department providing initial care for 25 adults and four children suffering with psychiatric emergencies. These patients represented one-quarter of all patients in our emergency department that morning.
The company executive with depression and alcohol problems who had suicidal thoughts after losing custody of his children. A mother of two with brittle bipolar illness who developed manic symptoms after missing some doses of her mood stabilizer medication. A woman with schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder who was hearing voices telling her to end her life.
After the county decreased mental health services in 2009, the average number of daily psychiatric evaluations in the emergency department nearly tripled within the first year, according to a study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Also, the average length of stay in the emergency department for patients in a mental health crisis increased by more than 50 percent during the same period.
I believe two key initiatives, implemented together, could put Sacramento on the road to mental health recovery. First, we must drastically increase the number of psychiatric hospital beds. Second, we must adopt what’s called a population health model of primary care – a model that integrates mental health services within primary care.
To read more of Dr. Lorin Scher's article, please click here.
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