Thursday, November 13, 2003

Closing of mental hospital is decried (Maryland)
Baltimore Sun story - "More than 250 people opposing the state's plan to close its Crownsville mental hospital argued last night that shutting the 90-year-old facility will produce more costs than savings.... State officials have said that closing the 200-bed Crownsville Hospital Center would save more than $11 million next year. Of that, $5 million would go toward community mental health services and nearly $1 million would pay for renovations at a hospital where many of the patients would be transferred, they said."  
  

Mental Health Cases Fall to Police (Florida)
Story in The Ledger (Lakeland) - "Florida's law-enforcement and corrections systems are rapidly evolving into the state's de facto mental health treatment providers. More often than not, our law-enforcement officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and parole officers are being forced to serve as the first responders and overseers of a system ill-equipped to deal with the consequences of an underfunded treatment system that's stretched beyond capacity. "