Shortage of state psychiatric beds leaves local hospitals jammed

Twin Cities hospitals have reached a breaking point under a deluge of patients with severe mental illness, who are jamming emergency rooms — sometimes for days — and being warehoused for months in psychiatric wards because doctors have nowhere to send them.

At Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, psychiatric units are full so often that delusional and unstable patients are restrained in an ER holding unit until beds open up.

http://www.startribune.com/shortage-of-state-psychiatric-beds-jams-twin-cities-hospitals/339185701/