Mental Health | Health
North Carolina’s Mental Healthcare Crisis
How the pandemic put additional strain on an already overburdened system.
Like many states, North Carolina is in the midst of a crisis in its mental healthcare system. Health experts point to rising numbers of mental health-related emergency room visits, longer wait times for psychiatric hospital beds, and increases in involuntary commitments as signs of much larger problems in the state’s mental health system.
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to speak to a Health Law class at Wake Forest Law School about these issues. My recommended reading for the students was a pair of fantastic articles by investigative journalist Taylor Knopf co-published by NC Health News and WRAL-TV this past summer. The covered topics provided a framework for discussion, and I’ve summarized some of the highlights below.
More Emergency Room Visits and Not Enough Psychiatric Hospital Beds
The number of mental health-related emergency room visits in North Carolina is on the rise, straining a…
