Editorial – Overdue attention to mental health crisis – The Suffolk News-Herald

We had been happy by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s announcement this week of plans to create a activity power to search out options for Virginians who want crucial psychological well being care.

The state’s Non permanent Detention Order, or TDO, system is very damaged, endangering not simply mentally sick individuals however their households and others.

Youngkin stated his Immediate Placement TDO Job Power will deliver collectively authorities companies, private and non-private hospitals, regulation enforcement and different group companions to handle the disaster going through individuals with TDOs who’re ready for behavioral well being companies.

“It’s crucial that we handle the psychological well being disaster and prioritize caring for Virginians,” Youngki stated. “I’m dedicated to creating substantial progress in offering entry to assets, caring for Virginians and reforming the TDO course of.”

We’ve all heard, if not lived, horror tales about dangerously sick individuals harming themselves or their family members as a result of there’s no place to place and deal with them. Suffolk police spend priceless time, which might in any other case be dedicated to stopping crime and monitoring down criminals, making repeat visits to the properties of mentally sick individuals and to emergency rooms, the place lots of these persons are taken by their households.

It’s long gone time to start addressing the issue as a well being disaster and never the accountability of the prison justice system, which has its fingers full.

“Virginia’s present TDO course of is dangerous for sufferers, care suppliers, households and regulation enforcement who wait with these sufferers for a placement,” stated Virginia Secretary of Well being and Human Sources John Littel. “This activity power is a key step in enhancing the behavioral well being system throughout the commonwealth.”

Dana Schrad, government director of the Virginia Chiefs of Police Affiliation, known as the initiative “essentially the most devoted effort we’ve got seen in 25 years in the direction of attempting to handle the issue of getting psychological well being beds obtainable to individuals,” he stated. “This effort is manner overdue, and ultimately, it ought to save Virginian’s lives and save much-needed regulation enforcement assets.”

Within the 14 months from June 2021 to July 2022, there have been 21,099 TDOs in Virginia, state officers say. The common wait time for somebody below a TDO to obtain a placement and care has risen to an unacceptable 43 hours.

Goals of the duty power embody ending the TDO waitlist, discovering speedy placements for individuals below a TDO, releasing law enforcement officials from spending vital hours away from patrolling the streets, making certain the security of all events and “setting the stage for lasting systematic change to the way in which Virginia processes TDOs.”

We help it wholeheartedly.