Suicide is a growing problem in the U.S., with suicide death rates rising from 29,000 people in 1999 to 43,000 people in 2014, according to PBS. Yet many hospitals are ill-prepared to take in patients enduring psychiatric crises, with many suicidal patients forced to wait hours for care.
Legislation designed to expand access to psychiatric beds have garnered bipartisan support, such as the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which passed in the House in July by a nearly unanimous vote of 422 to 2. The measure proposes each state create an online database of psychiatric beds that provides real-time updates on inpatient bed availability. The bill would also amend an exclusion that has prohibited most Medicaid beneficiaries from receiving coverage for inpatient psychiatric treatment, according to PBS.
Another bill, the Mental Health Reform Act, aims to expand Medicaid coverage for psychiatric inpatients, but that bill has not yet received a vote in the House or the Senate.
In the meantime, patients at imminent risk for suicide commonly find themselves waiting for hours or even days for a psychiatric bed.
"The waiting time to get a bed for a psychiatric patient across the country is a lot longer than for any other medical condition," said Mark Covall, president and CEO of the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems, according to PBS.
The number of psychiatric beds in the U.S. has dwindled in the last 50 years, and funding for non-hospital mental healthcare is scarce, according to the report. In 1955, there were roughly 340 state psychiatric beds for every 100,000 people, according to data from the Treatment Advocacy Center cited by PBS. By 2005, this ratio had fallen to 17 psychiatric beds per 100,000, a 95 percent decline, HHS found.
Despite the danger a lack of psychiatric beds pose to suicidal people, many experts agree psychiatric beds are supposed to be a last resort in mental healthcare, and the deeper problem stems from failure in the community to provide comprehensive mental health services.
"There is absolutely no doubt that most people, including many smart people in the field, believe that there aren't enough psychiatric hospital beds. And because they believe that, they jump to a belief that says that this must be one of the reasons that suicide is going up," said Mike Hogan, who served as New York State Commissioner of Mental Health from 2007 to 2012, according to the report.