North Carolina Mental Health Officials Cap Admissions at State Psychiatric Hospitals

North Carolina mental health officials have placed a cap on admissions at the four psychiatric hospitals administered by the state as the number of mentally ill patients continues to increase, the AP/Winston-Salem Journal reports. According to Mike Moseley -- director of the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services -- state psychiatric hospitals no longer will accept mentally ill patients from community hospitals after they reach 110% capacity in their short-term wards (AP/Winston-Salem Journal, 2/14). Community hospitals will have to continue to house mentally ill patients until state psychiatric hospitals can admit them, Moseley said. Community hospitals have raised concerns about the cap because emergency departments have become the "first stop" for many mentally ill patients, according to Mike Vicario, vice president of regulatory affairs for the North Carolina Hospital Association. Deby Dihoff, executive director of the North Carolina chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said that the cap "very much scared" her. She said, "Crises are going to happen. There (have) to be beds to serve people with mental illness," adding, "I think the division is doing a good job planning for the future. It's the present we're all a little worried about" (Bonner, Raleigh News & Observer, 2/13).