State Rep. Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung
Right now, two category five hurricanes are swirling inside Rhode Island's public health arena: the fire inside the Eleanor Slater Hospital system, and the opioid overdose epidemic. While seemingly unique situations, both of their answers lie in properly investing in the community-based mental & behavioral health infrastructure in our state.
The Eleanor Slater Hospital system's problems are enormously complex. While the Attorney General has stepped in to investigate, and hopefully will address concerns in regards to billing and patient classifications, our forward focus needs to start with listening to the hospital clinicians. They are screaming at the top of their lungs about discharge concerns because when you work with patients for a decade they become family, and these clinicians know there are not enough community mental health centers, day programs, or step-down level skilled nursing facilities that can properly care for these "extended" family members. We as a state have lagged at making those investments, and those programs that do exist are stressed out, understaffed, and lack the bandwidth to fully solve the problem.