The cost of treating charity-care & bad-debt patients

Dec. 26, 2012

4:00 a.m.

"People with mental illnesses are no more violent than people without mental illnesses. Yet, this kind of tragic event unfairly and harmfully tars people with mental illnesses as inherently dangerous."

Bruce Spangler, director of the Raleigh-based N.C. Mental Health Consumers' Organization. A recent New York Times article, "In Gun Debate, a Misguided Focus on Mental Illness," cited scientific research contradicting the erroneous, albeit widely held belief that people with mental illness are violent.

1.37 million

Number of people who need mental health, substance abuse and/or developmental disability services in N.C.

• 135,536

Number of people in North Carolina who were seen in a hospital emergency room for a mental health crisis in 2010

•

239

Number of those people who were transferred to a state psychiatric hospital

• 26½

Average number of hours the patient stayed in the ER if he or she was eventually transferred to a state psychiatric hospital

•

14

Average number of hours the patient stayed in the ER if he or she was eventually transferred to a local community hospital

• 32,339

Number of transports of mentally ill residents to psychiatric facilities by law enforcement, statewide in 2009

Source: N.C. Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, cited in a report published by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research