Creigh Deeds Family Violence Foreshadowed By Report Showing Psychiatric Bed Shortage

[Are_grits_groceries]

WASHINGTON -- The day before he stabbed his father and apparently shot himself to death, the 24-year-old son of Creigh Deeds, a Virginia state senator who was a 2009 Democratic gubernatorial candidate, failed to get psychiatric help because no beds were available.

Austin "Gus" Deeds died from a gunshot wound Tuesday morning at the Deeds home in the Millboro community of Bath County, state police said. His father, a prominent Democrat, was hospitalized in fair condition with stab wounds to his head and torso. Police said it appeared to be an attempted murder and a suicide.

The 24 hours preceding the violence had been tumultuous. An emergency custody order had compelled Gus Deeds to Bath County Hospital for a mental health evaluation, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Deeds was released because no psychiatric facility in Western Virginia had an available bed, Dennis Cropper, the executive director of the Rockbridge County Community Services Board, told the Richmond paper.

Two years ago, a state inspector general spotlighted the psychiatric bed shortage and called on Gov. Bob McDonnell's administration to address it. A 2012 report from the Office of the Inspector General for Behavioral Health Developmental Services found that 72 of about 5,000 Temporary Detention Orders -- issued after a mental health professional determines that a person poses a threat of serious harm to himself or others -- went unexecuted in a three-month period. Thirty-two of the unexecuted TDOs were in Southwest Virginia, where Deeds lived, compared with just five in Northern Virginia.

In 12 of the 32 cases of unexecuted TDOs in Southwest Virginia, no psychiatric beds were available. In addition, 273 TDOs statewide took longer than six hours to execute, exceeding the time allowed by state law. The report called for the state to rely more on private psychiatric beds in Southwest Virginia "until a reliable state-operated safety net is recreated."
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/creigh-deeds-violence_n_4305362.html

This is not just a problem in Virginia. It is nationwide. Somebody here was incredulous when this was posted in a story yesterday. There was doubt about not being able to find a bed for Gus Deeds. I hope this highlights the problem. The only reason this is now an issue is the tragedy that occurred yesterday.

People have been dealing with this for years. There are some people who do need immediate help and should be treated immediately. TOD's aren't issued for grins. That is a huge red flag that goes up beside the others that have been raised. Imagine having a loved one who is this unstable and you can't find help knowing there is a real risk to people.

[Live and Learn]

1. Happens all the time. Getting help for people in situations like this

is extremely difficult.

[libdem4life]

2. My very personal hope and prayer is that this becomes a highly political issue...for these reasons,

and others. Perhaps the grieving family and the rest of their social support network would receive some comfort that this did not happen in vain if it empowers just one family...one loved child...a spouse...a parent. I remember the Polly Klaas murder as it was in my county. Her grieving father got laws changed and did a lot of good work in her memory, and he was just a "regular" person.

Maybe this is the time for Reagan's Shame ... we must call it what it was and is ... to begin to turn the corner back to the social contract of humane, civilized services, to help these heartaches when there few good choices.

[Live and Learn]

3. +1 So many recent tragedies could have been avoided

just by giving those in crisis (and their families) the help they needed.

[MoonRiver]

4. This is a national disgrace.

Imagine if someone were having a heart attack and the docs said sorry no beds available. Take this pill and go home.

Mental health is a huge medical issue. WTFU America!

[spicegal]

5. So sad. This was a preventable tragedy. How often has does this have to happen?

How many times have we seen similar tragedies, resulting in deaths? For a brief moment everyone is all about beefing up our mental health system, and nothing happens. If a state senator's son can't even get a bed, you know it's bad.

[greymattermom]

6. it's just the funding

Insurance companies used to pay for psychiatric inpatient days. Folks may remember a few years ago when the small psychiatric hospitals advertised widely. Insurance cut off payment and nearly all of those hospitals closed. The one in my area was sold for use as a primary care outpatient center. If mental health care is mandated in the ACA, more beds will be open. You have to remember that medical care is driven by a business model, NOT BY PATIENT NEEDS.

[Sienna86]

7. Rachel Maddow spoke about this last night

Very sad, the son was exceptionally bright. The right medical care just wasn't available at the necessary time and a life was lost.

[GeorgeGist]

8. Another fine product ...

of Voodoo economics.

[HereSince1628]

9. Something passing under the radar? Involuntary detention can, of itself, be traumatic

because to the patient it is often disorienting, invalidating and personally threatening. Compelling a person to submit to that experience can't be done with having an impact.

I can't say what Gus Deeds experienced, but rather than making things better, that event could have exacerbated an already troubled situation.

Although we can't do it via opinions on DU...Back in Virginia the decision to implement the involuntary evaluation when there was no space to act on it should be reexamined. The decision to release him in what events later proved was an aroused state of mind also needs to be reexamined.

I don't want to say that this could have been prevented with any certainty. But, there is a reasonable possibility that the crack that Gus slipped thru involved rather more than just lack of funding for a bed in psych detention.