Patients in a mental health crisis often end up in ERs, which are ill-equipped to help

Elly Yu May 15, 2018
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Patients in a mental health crisis often end up in ERs, which are ill-equipped to help

Elly Yu May 15, 2018
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Emergency rooms are often the first places people end up during a mental health crisis. But many ERs aren’t really equipped to help. After they check in, patients can end up staying in emergency rooms for days just waiting for in-patient psychiatric treatment elsewhere. As emergency rooms see a growing number of behavioral health patients, hospital officials say resources are strained.

A version of this story ran on WABE. 

Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.