Source: NPR
With the number of psychiatric issues continuing to grow among US citizens, many public health officials are blaming the closure of mental health hospitals as a reason for the prevalence.
Over the past ten years, psychiatric beds and care facilities became less prominent within America as health care advocates aimed to eliminate institutionalized hospitals.
“State hospitals began to realize that individuals who were there probably could do well in the community,” said Dominic Sisti, director of the Scattergood Program for Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health Care at the University of Pennsylvania.
“It was well-intended, but what I believe happened over the past 50 years is that there’s been such an evaporation of psychiatric therapeutic spaces that now we lack a sufficient number of psychiatric beds,” he added.
Some health care officials are looking to reinstate psychiatric hospitals to help more than 8 million Americans currently suffering from mental health disorders.
Read Full Story: NPR