Police charged a 19-year old man with the murder of his own mother, Joan Hendry, 52, in White Hum Valley on Monday night. He stabbed his mother to death and this prompted calls for hospitals to provide improved mental health services in their emergency departments. Consumers of Mental Health Washington executive department, Shauna Gaebler said that if there is faster emergency response to mental health issues, many cases would have been intervened immediately.
Gaebler also added that emergency department staff has mental health expertise and training but they are not enough. "There's still a real risk of people having to wait to see someone," she said.
She added, "You can have people who leave the emergency departments, so it's a matter of having some timely responses that are appropriate when people come so they don't sit in (an) emergency department and become more distressed."
Also, she reiterated on the importance of having a specialist 24-hour emergency mental health section within emergency departments to cater to patients all day long.
In related news, in the United States latest data, mental health problems are at a constant rise. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, Mental illnesses are common in the United States. In fact, in 2012, there were an estimated 43.7 million adults aged 18 or older in the U.S. with AMI in the past year. This represented 18.6 percent of all U.S. adults.
However, even younger adults and children are now suffering from various mental health disorders that were triggered by many risk factors including bullying, neglect, abuse and drug use.
Mental Health Support Centers should be present in every community to help in the proper diagnosis and prompt treatment of people with disorders. Also, counseling plays a crucial role in the treatment and prognosis of many mental health problems.