Sacramento emergency rooms have become overwhelmed with mentally ill patients who are in crisis, and the problem is about to get worse as the county prepares to further slash services at its psychiatric facility, administrators said Wednesday.
The budget-strapped county plans to shutter the crisis unit at its Mental Health Treatment Center on Stockton Boulevard as early as Friday, and soon will close 50 of the facility's 100 inpatient beds.
The center handles the most severe psychiatric patients in the county, including those who police and family members believe pose a danger to themselves or others.
Because most of these patients are uninsured, officials said, they likely will end up in hospital emergency departments, which are ill-equipped to properly treat them. They already are showing up at ERs, they said, as the mental health treatment center has started curtailing admissions.
Read the complete story at sacbee.com