SPECIAL REPORT: Mental healthcare shortage directly impacting South Texas
LEE
SOMETIMES… IT CAN
TAKE MONTHS TO
GET IN TO SEE A
DOCTOR. IN FACT… YOU MIGHT EVEN BE
WATCHING THIS
NEWSCAST… FROM A
CROWDED WAITING
ROOM. THE LACK OF
HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS… IS
A COMMON
COMPLAINT IN THE
COASTAL BEND. SPECIAL REPORT ANIM. AND AS PART OF
OUR “WHERE DO WE
GO FROM HERE”
SERIES… OUR EMILY
HAMILTON … TAKES
A LOOK AT WHY WE’RE SEEING THIS
SHORTAGE… AND
THE PATIENTS WHO
ARE MOST AFFECTED
BY IT. SX PLASMA
EMILY
LEE… LOCAL
EXPERTS SAY THE
PROBLEM IS MORE
SPECIFICALLY A LACK OF MENTAL
HEALTHCARE
PROFESSIONALS IN
SOUTH TEXAS. IT’S
STRAINING OUR
POLICE AND HEALTHCARE
RESOURCES AND
PUTTING PUBLIC
SAFETY AT RISK. IT’S
A PROBLEM
COMMUNITY LEADERS FEAR … MAY ONLY
GET WORSE. PKG
THE SIGNS ARE ALL
AROUND US. YOU
MAY SEE THEM EVERY
DAY. SOT
NO SUPER HERE: It’s a crisis. It’s
been a crisis coming for awhile
and it’s not even hit as hard as
it
will. OUR CITY’S
HOMELESS POPULATION
PANHANDLING AT
INTERSECTIONS… AND SLEEPING
UNDER OVERPASSES. LOCAL HEALTHCARE
EXPERTS SAY THIS IS PART OF A
NATIONWIDE
EPIDEMIC. THE
GROWING NUMBER
OF PEOPLE IN NEED
OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES… AND A
DECLINING NUMBER
OF PEOPLE
QUALIFIED TO
PROVIDE THAT HELP. DR. JOHN LUSINS IS
THE CHAIR OF THE
PSYCHIATRY
DEPARTMENT AT THE
CORPUS CHRISTI
MEDICAL CENTER AND SAYS… SOME OF
THE MENTAL
HEALTHCARE
PROVIDERS IN SOUTH
TEXAS… AREN’T EVEN
BOARD CERTIFIED. SOT
DR. JOHN LUSINS,
PSYCHIATRIST: They didn’t go
through the training programs,
which, they do a well enough job
in an area where there’s a lack of
providers, but it’s not the best
situation. THE GROWING
NUMBER OF PEOPLE
IN NEED OF THESE
MENTAL HEALTH
SERVICES WHO GO
UNTREATED IS DEPLETING LAW
ENFORCEMENT
RESOURCES. SOT
OFFICER DENISE PACE, CORPUS
CHRISTI POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Our patrol officers are handling
these situations on a daily
basis. In 2017, we had approximately
4,000 calls for service that
were
mental health related. SOT
EMILY HAMILTON,
[email protected]: In
fact… for more than a
decade… the Corpus Christi Police
Department has been trying to
manage the growing number of
people in need of psychiatric
help… with few places to go. SOT
ASSISTANT CHIEF MARK SCHAUER, CORPUS CHRISTI
POLICE DEPARTMENT: We
commit on average in the Police
Department four people a day, so
that’s about 12 to 13 hundred a
year. SOT
DR. JOHN LUSINS,
PSYCHIATRIST: Recently we saw,
just because of this
overcrowding,
a patient who was psychotic attack another patient. That’s
what happens when you’ve got a
lack of resources and they have
to crowd the ER’s. IN 2007… A CRISI
INTERVENTION TEAM
WAS CREATED BY THE POLICE FORCE… IN WHICH OFFICERS
UNDERGO A 40 HOUR
TRAINING PROGRAM
TO LEARN DE-
ESCALATION
TACTICS. CURRENTLY… 81
CORPUS CHRISTI
POLICE OFFICERS ARE
CERTIFIED IN THIS
MENTAL HEALTH
COURSE. ALL FOR THE PURPOSE OF
KEEPING THE
MENTALLY UNSTABLE
OUT OF JAIL… AND
INSTEAD IN
TREATMENT FACILITIES. SOT
OFFICER DENISE PACE, CORPUS
CHRISTI POLICE DEPARTMENT:
We cannot arrest ourselves out
of
this problem. We have to look at it and we have to look at the
reason why these individuals are
homeless and why they’re having
issues and get them the services
that they need
BUT THAT WASN’T ENOUGH. IN JULY… THE DEPARTMENT
APPOINTED A CRISIS
INTERVENTION
INVESTIGATOR… WHOSE SOLE ROLE IS
TO RESPOND TO
MENTAL HEALTH
CALLS. SOT
OFFICER DENISE PACE, CORPUS
CHRISTI POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Because we want to get them out
of the criminal justice system
and back into the mental healthcare
system where they belong,
because these people are sick. OFFICER AMBER
BUCKELEW IS ON-
CALL… AT ALL
TIMES… WAITING TO
INTERVENE IN
POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS
SITUATIONS. SOT
OFFICER AMBER BUCKELEW,
CRISIS INTERVENTION TEAM
INVESTIGATOR: A lot of our
people are homeless, and they
don’t have family, they don’t have
friends. They don’t have anybody
checking up on them to see, have
you taken your meds? How are
you doing on your sobriety? Nobody is asking those
questions. OFFICER BUCKELEW
AND HER CRISIS
INTERVENTION TEAM
CONSISTENTLY
CHECK ON PEOPLE
THEY’RE CONCERNED ABOUT. THE TEAM
WORKS WITH LOCAL SHELTERS AND
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
FACILITIES TO
CONNECT THOSE
PEOPLE THE HELP
THEY NEED. IN SOME CASES, BUCKELEW
AND OTHER OFFICERS
WILL DRIVE THOSE
PEOPLE TO DOCTOR’S
APPOINTMENTS AND
COURT APPEARANCES. SHE
DESCRIBED ONE OF
THOSE PEOPLE THE
DEPARTMENT HAS
HELPED. SOT
OFFICER AMBER BUCKELEW,
CRISIS INTERVENTION TEAM
INVESTIGATOR: He didn’t know
where to reach out for help, so
when we reached out, that changed everything. DR. LUSINS SAID
THERE ARE LOTS OF
REASONS FOR THIS
GROWING CRISIS,
BUT ONE IN
PARTICULAR STANDS OUT. MORE
DOCTORS ARE
CHOOSING TO WORK
IN HOSPITALS AS
OPPOSED TO PRIVATE
PRACTICES … CAUSING A
SHORTAGE OF
OUTPATIENT
PSYCHIATRISTS. SOT
DR. JOHN LUSINS,
PSYCHIATRIST: I know we can’t
absorb all those patients, so
where will they go? ANOTHER PROBLEM
… THERE AREN’T
ENOUGH PLACES FOR
PEOPLE TO GET HELP
FOR DRUG AND
ALCHOL ABUSE. THAT CAN LEAD TO A
RIPPLE EFFECT IN THE COMMUNITY AND
YOUR TAX DOLLARS
END UP FUNDING IT. SOT
DR. JOHN LUSINS,
PSYCHIATRIST: The biggest
psychiatric hospital because of
this crisis is the Nueces County
Jail. A JAIL RUN BY
NUECES COUNTY
SHERIFF JOHN CHRIS
HOOPER… WHO SAID
22 PERCENT OF
PEOPLE CURRENTLY IN THE COUNTY JAIL
ARE MENTALLY ILL. SOT
JOHN CHRIS HOOPER, NUECES
COUNTY SHERIFF: Some of them
might not belong in jail, even
if
they were involved in criminal activity, there probably should
be
other treatment and process for
the mentally challenged. SOT
EMILY HAMILTON,
[email protected]:
Typically when someone is picked
up by law enforcement and is deemed “a danger to themself or
others”… they are committed
and
taken to the Behavioral Health
Wing here at Spohn Memorial
Hospital… but construction here
has many people asking if those
mental health services will
continue. A CHRISTUS SPOHN
SPOKESPERSON TOLD
KRIS 6 NEWS… THOSE SERVICES
WILL CONTINUE … BUT WHAT’S NOT
YET KNOWN IS
WHERE. THE
POSSIBILITIES
INCLUDE STAYING AT
SPOHN MEMORIAL… OR RE-LOCATING TO
A NEWER, UPDATED
FACILITY. BUT LOCAL
EXPERTS CAN ALL
AGREE… THE
BIGGEST SOLUTION TO THIS CRISIS IS
FIGURING OUT HOW
TO ATTRACT THE TOP
NOTCH MENTAL
HEALTH
PROFESSIONALS DESPERATELY
NEEDED IN THE
COASTAL BEND. SOT
DR. JOHN LUSINS,
PSYCHIATRIST: I think
communication, recruitment, and
waiting and hoping, I hate to
say it, but is kind of where we’re
at
right now. SX PLASM
EMILY
CCPD SAYS SINCE
IMPLEMENTING ITS
NEW PROGRAM… THEY’RE ARRESTING
FEWER OF THEIR
FREQUENT FLIERS … AND INSTEAD
CONNECTING THEM WITH THE HELP THEY
NEED. LEE? LEE
Local experts say the lack of mental healthcare professionals in South Texas is putting a strain on police and medical resources and putting public safety at risk. https://kristv.com/where-do-we-go-from-here/2018/11/15/special-report-mental-healthcare-shortage-directly-impacting-south-texas/
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