Mentally Ill 13 Year Old Boy Held In Emergency Room For TWO WEEKS Due To Lack Of Treatment Options

This is beyond outrageous, this is fucking criminal.

Mentally ill boy held 2 weeks in emergency room

By RUSSELL HIXSON, Skagit Valley Herald
Updated 12:53 pm, Friday, May 16, 2014

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. (AP) — For two weeks, a 13-year-old boy diagnosed with serious mental health issues sat in an emergency room bed at United General Hospital. After countless daily phone calls to facilities across the state, the hospital wasn't sure what else to do other than keep the boy there and hope a placement opened.

An involuntary treatment hearing was held Thursday. With no one qualified to testify about the child's condition, a court commissioner ordered the boy be released without treatment.

"The mental health system has failed this young boy," said attorney Dennis Scott of Anacortes, who argued for the boy's release.

Testimony indicated the boy suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. At the hearing, the boy's mother tearfully expressed her frustration to get her son help.

Shortly after the hearing, Scott learned a bed had been found for his client.

Scott routinely represents patients during these hearings and said this case is far too common and illustrates the poor job the state has done to take care of its mentally ill citizens. This case was particularly egregious, Scott said. The child was acting out aggressively and was in a crisis state. But after being hospitalized for two weeks in United General's ER, he received no mental health treatment and the state found no placement for him.

"I get outraged because, quite frankly, that shouldn't happen," Scott said. "This is by far the worst I've seen."

More at the link.

Washington state is 47th in the nation for facilities availability for young mentally ill patients.

That is ridiculous for this state full of so called Progressives and Liberals.





H/T FARK for the link.