Mental health advocates say the 988 initiative has multiple potential benefits among them an easy-to-remember number that could help reduce stigma around needing to call for help.
Bruce Cruser
Our state mental hospitals are full and the pandemic has brought an already stressed system to a crisis point.
The impact of overcrowding at Virginiaâs nine state psychiatric hospitals has renewed calls for the state to build more hospitals. The lack of an inpatient bed means some adults and children in crisis are waiting indefinitely in emergency departments for an available psychiatric placement. If subject to an involuntary commitment order, they may be waiting in handcuffs with a law enforcement officer required to be present.
This is not the way we should treat someone living with a serious illness. There is an immediate need for solutions, but Virginia already has one of the highest numbers of state psychiatric beds per capita.
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