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Wed Apr 18 00:47:23 BST 2007

 >>>
Now back to the subject that prompted this post.   I suspect that much 
of the violence, wild use of firearms, and other human/social outbursts 
may have a mental health overtone, an untreated or undertreated 
condition.   

Finally:

IF THE MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS IN HOUSTON, IN TEXAS, IN THE UNITED STATES 
IS NOT ADDRESSED SYSTEMATICALLY, MORE HUMAN OUTBURSTS ARE GOING TO 
HAPPEN.   IN MY VIEW WHAT WE ARE SEEING IN VIOLENCE IN OUR SOCIETY HAS 
AS ONE ROOT CAUSE, OUR BROKEN MENTAL HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE.
 >>>

But this is not news.  This complaint has been made for years but it 
appears no one listens, until, as Jeremy said earlier, these "outbursts" 
happen, at which point it becomes an issue, only to fade away until the 
next "outburst".

KMATTOX at aol.com wrote:
> Although I should use my allocated bandwidth time to talk about trauma 
> and to compliment those who have done a good job in Virginia's trauma 
> response, I want to talk about a totally different subject which has 
> consumed increasingly more and more of my administrative time.  
>  
> The subject is Mental & Behavoral Health.   
>  
> Since the closure of state mental health and psychiatric hospitals, 
> there has been an increasing effort to push the responsibility for 
> identification and treatment more to the local level.  That is perhaps 
> as it should be, but funding has been sparse to negligible.   Hardly a 
> family, and many of our colleagues are affected by depression, and 
> other mental health diagnoses.   Treatment is sporadic and expensive.  
>  
> Add a mental health problem as a co morbid factor to diabetes, heart 
> attack, pneumonia, trauma, etc, and we have a really big problem.   
>  
> Houston is the 4th largest city in the US.   It has a fast growth 
> rate.    In 2000, 3000 inpatient psychiatry beds existed.   In 2007 
> there are 700, despite an almost doubling of the population in those 7 
> years.   One public psychiatric hospital (HCPC) has more than 300 
> built beds, but less than 90 are staffed and there are no iv fluids, 
> no syringes, no IM medications in this hospital.  ANY , ANY co morbid 
> condition results in an attempted transfer out instantaneously to BTGH 
> were there is tight overcrowding of mental health conditions.   Up to 
> 37% of the admissions to medicine and surgery, including trauma, have 
> a mental health component.  
>  
> We have 20 in hospital mental health beds, 12 Emergency Center closed 
> beds, and up to 12 close observation sites in the emergency center 
> proper.   We have at any time more than 20-40 inpatients on the 
> surgery or medical wards who have both medical and mental health 
> problems, often the mental health problems are severe.      If we 
> tripled the number of in-hospital mental health beds, they would be 
> filled in 12 hours.   
>  
> Now back to the subject that prompted this post.   I suspect that much 
> of the violence, wild use of firearms, and other human/social 
> outbursts may have a mental health overtone, an untreated or 
> undertreated condition.   
>  
> Finally:
>  
> IF THE MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS IN HOUSTON, IN TEXAS, IN THE UNITED STATES 
> IS NOT ADDRESSED SYSTEMATICALLY, MORE HUMAN OUTBURSTS ARE GOING TO 
> HAPPEN.   IN MY VIEW WHAT WE ARE SEEING IN VIOLENCE IN OUR SOCIETY HAS 
> AS ONE ROOT CAUSE, OUR BROKEN MENTAL HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE. 
>  
> Kenneth L. Mattox, MD
> Houston
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> See what's free at AOL.com 
> <http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503>.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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