NASMHPD assessment finds forensic patients in state hospitals up 76 percent, driven by incompetency cases
The assessment, produced for NASMHPD by researchers including William Fisher, tracks forensic patients in state psychiatric hospitals over nearly two decades. Among the 37 states with usable data, forensic patient numbers rose 76 percent from 1999 to 2014; in a smaller group of about 26 states reporting incompetent-to-stand-trial census data, the number of IST patients receiving restoration on a given census day rose 72 percent.
The authors say the rise in many states is mostly due to patients found incompetent to stand trial, and that long stays, low turnover and more court referrals have pushed waiting lists up in many states, in some cases leading to contempt threats or findings when hospitals cannot admit defendants on time. The growth was uneven: a few states reported little change, and the national average climbed faster than the median state.
The document provides a national data baseline on how competency cases came to occupy so much forensic hospital capacity.
Source: Forensic Patients in State Psychiatric Hospitals: 1999-2016 — National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), by Amanda Wik, M.A.; Vera Hollen, M.A.; William H. Fisher, Ph.D.
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