Tagged: Vermont State Hospital

The state of Vermont is considering construction of a temporary, seven-bed secure psychiatric facility on state property in Middlesex, to remain in place while a permanent new psychiatric hospital is built in Berlin.

State officials had been looking for locations for such a facility in central Vermont, and had been eyeing a site in Waterbury, but had not been successful in working out an agreement.

The number of mentally ill Vermonters being held in hospital emergency rooms for lack of a mental health bed is heading in the wrong direction.

That's the word from Mental Health Commissioner Patrick Flood. Flood tells a legislative committee that instances in which mental health beds weren't available and patients were held in hospital emergency rooms grew from 15 in June to 22 in July and 24 in August.