For the past month, WFAE has been examining North Carolina’s broken mental health system, especially as it affects people in the criminal justice system. This week, we start to look at the impact this system has on others, such as children, who wait for weeks or months in hospital emergency departments because there’s simply no place for them to go. And people who head to emergency rooms in crisis, only to find the average wait for a state psychiatric hospital is more than two weeks.
The emergency room isn't supposed to be a place to live for days or weeks. But that’s what’s been happening for many North Carolinians in the midst of a mental health crisis, our Local Journalism Initiative partner WFAE reports.
For the past month, WFAE has been examining North Carolina’s broken mental health system, especially as it affects people in the criminal justice system. This week, we start to look at the impact this system has on others, such as children, who wait for weeks or months in hospital emergency departments because there’s simply no place for them to go. And people who head to emergency rooms in crisis, only to find the average wait for a state psychiatric hospital is more than two weeks.