Policy Brief: The Warehousing of Washington Patients in Need of Psychiatric

Treatment

Policy Brief: The Warehousing of Washington Patients in Need of Psychiatric Treatment

The following policy brief is composed with the following individuals in mind: Senators
Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell and Washington State Governor Jay Inslee. Together, these three
individuals can strongly influence policy regarding Washington State residents living with
mental illness.
Summary
Mental illness is rampant in the state of Washington with 23.4 percent of residents living
with a mental illness (American Psychological Association, 2014). With the third highest rate of
residents living with mental illness in the nation, our state is one of the lowest states with
resources and treatment facilities available to this marginalized population. Increasing the
number of treatment facilities in combination with implementing preventative care measures for
this population will increase quality of care received. In addition, decreasing the number of
psychiatric patients occupying hospital bed space will increase availability for physical ill
patients.
Background
With the unveiling of the 2016 federal budget, funding for mental health has increased by
126 million dollars for mental illness research and 44.6 million dollars for mental health services
like housing, screenings, addiction and veteran services (NAMI, 2015). However, no further
funding has been provided to build additional treatment facilities desperately needed especially
in Washington State. Due to lack of treatment facilities, patients admitted to the emergency room
who have been deemed a threat to themselves or others have become subject to hospital
warehousing (Rosenthal, 2015).
Warehousing refers to the situation hospitals face when patients must be held
involuntarily until psychiatrically evaluated. While the emergency room in a hospital may seem

like a safe and effective location for psychiatric treatment, patients are frequently restrained due
to violent outbursts by nurses and physicians who have little to no knowledge on the best care
and treatment practices for psychiatric disorders. The effect of warehousing is traumatizing for
these patients, the nurses and providers who care for them, increases emergency room wait times
and costs tax payers 10 million dollars annually (Rosenthal, 2015).
Recommendations
While the need for increased mental health services has been recognized on both a federal
and state level, additional or redistributed funding is needed. Due to the previous 6 years of
decreased funding, 250 psychiatric beds have been cut and not reinstated (Kardish, 2014). Please
consider the following interventions when revisiting SB 5645

(psychiatric patient meets

detention criteria and no evaluation and treatment bed is available) to help decrease the instances
of warehousing psychiatric patients:

Increase or redistribute funds to expand or build new treatment facilities for

involuntary admission psychiatric patients.

Provide financial incentives for mental health providers to practice in Washington
State. An increase in providers means faster evaluation of psychiatric patients,
decreased emergency wait room times, and staffing for new or expanded

treatment facilities.
Focus spending Medicaid money meant for additional involuntary admission on
preventative services such as mental health screenings, drug prescription cost
assistance and community wellness programs.
References

American Psychological Association. (2014). Are psychologists in the states that have the most
mental illness?, 45(10). Retrieved from
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/11/datapoint.aspx

Kardish, C. (2014, October). Mental health ruling in Washington state could reverberate through
the country. Governing States and Localities Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/gov-washington-boardingruling.html
National Alliance on Mental Illness. (2010). NAMI state advocacy: State Statistics Washington.
Arlington, VA. Retrieved from
https://www2.nami.org/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm?ContentFileID=93526
Rosenthal, Brian M. (2015, April 2). Boarding mentally ill becoming epidemic in state. The
Seattle Times. Retrieved from http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/timeswatchdog/lsquoboardingrsquo-mentally-ill-becoming-epidemic-in-state/