Nowhere to go,NC State hospital moving patients into area's homeless shelters
The North Carolina (US) newspaper reported that that State hospitals are moving patients into homeless shelters to save money.
The paper states:
Christopher Dobbins, 23, was released from John Umstead Hospital, a state psychiatric hospital in Butner, after a six-day stay in November.He was dropped off by Forsyth County deputies at the Samaritan Ministries homeless shelter in Winston-Salem carrying his clothes, his prescribed medication for clinical depression and schizophrenia, and little else.
"Most people want to fight you or want to steal your stuff," Dobbins said of his second stay at the shelter. "I can't deal with the loud arguments. I can't deal with these people yelling at me."
North Carolina treated and sent 1,140 mental-health patients such as Dobbins to homeless shelters in 2004, compared with 763 in 2000, according to state records.
Mental-health advocates accuse the state of having no consistent plan to care for thousands of homeless patients once they're discharged from a state hospital and leaving the responsibility to shelters that are ill-equipped to manage those patients.
Without such care, many patients are ending up back on the street, they say.
Source: Winston Salem Journal (North Carolina)
Posted by at February 5, 2006 10:36 AM
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Government & Schizophrenia
The streets is an awful place for someone with schizophrenia. Is there anyway to send them to Canada? There are homes awaiting them here :)
Posted by: Sherry at March 6, 2006 09:57 AM
This is appalling. I work directly with those who have schizophrenia in a state hospital and we make sure they are able to make it on their own before they go into the world, no matter how long it takes.
Posted by: anonomous at July 26, 2007 08:02 PM
The streets is an awful place for someone with schizophrenia. Is there anyway to send them to Canada? There are homes awaiting them here :)
Posted by: Sherry at March 6, 2006 09:57 AM
This is appalling. I work directly with those who have schizophrenia in a state hospital and we make sure they are able to make it on their own before they go into the world, no matter how long it takes.
Posted by: anonomous at July 26, 2007 08:02 PM