Officials Delay, Disabled People Confined to WV State Hospitals, Advocates Warn 'Warehousing' 'Patient Dumping'

'As officials delay, more West Virginians with disabilities are being confined to mental hospitals,' By Erin Beck, Mountain State Spotlight, Dec. 10, 2023. -Ed.

For at least 2 years, disability rights advocates have warned that the state was indefinitely institutionalizing people in state-owned psychiatric hospitals. Despite outcry, lawmakers have been slow to act. In a meeting room at the Elk Valley Branch Library, Jason Dees is running the show. Frosting cookies and playing games with his friends and their caregivers, he offers advice and makes sure everyone feels included. "Jason, you are teaching the next class,” Chris Peters, his legal guardian, said.

Dees has PTSD from a car accident, and an intellectual disability makes learning life skills difficult.

In the past, this led to violent outbursts, like throwing things and breaking windows. But with help from a team of caregivers, he lives in a home, with roommates with similar disabilities. Dees gets to take weekend trips and attends the social club with others who have similar disabilities. Not all West Virginians with similar disabilities are as fortunate. Increasingly, people with these disabilities are being institutionalized at the state’s 2 government-run psychiatric hospitals.

Between 2015 and 2021, the number of people with these disabilities admitted to William R. Sharpe, Jr. Hospital in Weston & Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington nearly tripled, to 167. It remained over 100 in both 2022 and 2023. The facilities were designed for emergencies, with a goal of helping people return safely to their communities, according to the state’s involuntary commitment code. But records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the average length of stay for patients at Sharpe admitted since 2015 was 139 days; at Bateman, it was 156 days.

As of Nov. 1, 16 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities had been confined for more than a year.

For at least the past 2 years, disability rights advocates have warned of IDD patient “warehousing;” and even before that, West Virginia officials acknowledged that the state was indefinitely confining people to state-owned psychiatric hospitals. Disability rights advocates have said providers who receive state money are “patient dumping” their clients at hospitals, and courts are too quick to agree to commit them. But all agree that in some cases, a shortage of well-trained, well-paid care workers gives some patients few other options...
https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2023/12/10/wv-disabilities-mental-hospital/

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