Reporter Jon Burkett at WTVR-CBS 6 News provided an in-depth look at the issue of Virginia's psych bed shortage and law enforcement's role in these calls. For emergency medicine insight, he spoke with VACEP Board member Joran Sequeira, MD, FACEP, who provides perspective from emergency physicians. Dr. Sequeira is highly knowledgable on mental health issues, and serves on multiple psychiatric workgroups and committees in Virginia. We worked closely with reporter on this story and he did a great job of accurately and fairly informing the public on the issue.
Her comments in the story:
"It's frustrating for everybody," said Dr. Joran Sequeira, who sits on the Board of Directors at the Virginia chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "I feel like we could be taking care of our psychiatric patients better by just making it a simpler process."
She said state hospitals are being overwhelmed right now with patients, something that has been made worse by COVID-19.
"The issue is that now we're getting outbreaks at some psychiatric hospitals," said Sequeira. "Now we have fewer beds at each of the psychiatric hospitals because of social distancing."
Sequeira sympathized with law enforcement, but her biggest concern is the health of the patient forced to wait for help.
"They're not getting the psychiatric care they necessarily need, which is group therapy, individual therapy, the right medications because we're not experts at that," she said.
Sequeira said that too much time is often wasted during the bed search process, so an updated and streamlined statewide registry could help.
"It's just such a long, drawn-out process," said Sequeira. "I do know that the state is working on trying to improve the communication about the bed registry."
