the location of your emergency More americans going
through a mental health crisis are seeking emergency
care. We're learning when they arrive at the emergency
room. They may not get the help they need. I'm trying
to ask people for help and I feel like I am getting
next. I used to tell my mom, I wish I had a terminal
illness instead of mental illness because people
understand that 44 year old Bria birch suffers from
bipolar, post traumatic stress and dissociative
identity disorders. This is my mom in the passenger
seat. Her mother died in 2017. My mother was my best
friend and losing her, made me not want to live anymore.
I remember sitting down at my table and getting my
pills out and started to separate all the ones that
would hurt hurt me out of the pile of pills. I was
trying to kill myself. She went to her local emergency
room in Manhattan Kansas for help. Unfortunately there
aren't many places in Kansas where you can go and get
screened. You have to go to the er across the country.
Mental health er visits are up 66% according to a study
from earlier this year. They're not getting the care
they expect because our rooms are full. Robin Chadwick
is president of another hospital in Kansas ascension
via Christi ST joseph in Wichita. This team is up
awesome team. Every single day. In this facility, we
have patients who are suicidal or homicidal on a good
day, there will be 10 behavioral health patients
waiting in the emergency room On a really bad day.
There might be 30 nationally bed capacity for
psychiatric patients has plummeted in recent decades.
Care outside the hospital can also be hard to find a
federal audit this spring. Found mental health patients
with insurance experience challenges finding in network
providers, patients also face a shortage of
psychiatrists willing to accept Medicaid all this while
ers cope with the recent surge in behavioral heal
visits related to substance abuse, substance abuse and
mental health have always gone hand in hand at it all
up and you get patients with nowhere else to go
flooding emergency rooms whatever that mental illness
is, if you can't get help, the situation gets worse,
escalates the emergency room is the safety net for
everything. Problem is we found hospital emergency
rooms are struggling with the influx of patients who
like birch are desperate for help. The er by her in
Manhattan Kansas was like many places you'll find
nationwide that don't have a behavioral health unit,
they couldn't find me anywhere to go. She was so
desperate for care. She steers herself in a wheelchair
toward traffic outside the er so she could get into a
state hospital. I did what I had to do to get help. E.R.
They're not equipped to handle mental health. Our
analysis of CDC data found of all psychiatric patien
who go to the er about 11% leave without a follow up
plan for care. 11% may not sound like much but it
equals hundreds of thousands of patients in mental
distress leaving the E.R. Released without a referral
Chadwick says the reality is more people in crisis are
coming to the er and too many hospitals aren't able
meet the need I'm getting from you. That you totally
get why mental health patients are fed up with
emergency room care across the country. I completely
understand it. This is seven West Chadwick's hospital
in Wichita built a new space to expand behavioral
health treatment. There are special screws used that
cannot be pried out Because a screw could then be used
to scratch yourself, hurt yourself to prevent suicide
by hanging doors have special handles. TVs don't have
exposed cords. So this is a great resource that you all
have. It is a great resource and its face full all the
time. The build out took money about $60 million 22
attempted suicide twice as a freshman in high school.
Um and it really hit home and she's what drives me
outside the hospital. People here in Wichita are
working on new ideas for how to keep psychiatric
patients for needing the er in the first place. Wichita
is in Sedgwick County leaders here established a rapi
response team to help with mental health related 911
calls. I don't want to hurt myself. So I need I need
help when people may not need the er they also set
aside $15 million for a new mental health community
crisis center, County Commissioner LACEy Cruz envisio
this area could be used to help psychiatric patien
before they need the er caring for people with mental
illness. What does that look like What we need really
is a like sort of a one stop shop, let's make sure
have transportation to get there and then let's follow
up with them. You can't teach someone to swim when
they're in the middle of the ocean, drowning. The
county is not settled on when and where to build the
new center back in Manhattan Kansas medication and
caregiver are working for bria birch for now I have to
keep reminding myself that I really don't have too much
to complain about right now because I have a roof over
my head, I got food in my fridge and cabinets and I
have money in the bank and I'm I'm just doing a lot
better now and I just hope I stay on this path. A lot
of people like bria birch out there in Wichita which is
in Kansas where Breitbart is, they think the solution
really is to both increase hospital bed capacity
also to boost resources in the community to help keep
people from needing the er in the first place Chance