Letter: Mental health program needed

Thursday, July 22, 2004 | 9:06 a.m.

I was pleased to see attention paid to the ongoing phenomenon of the increase in the mentally ill jail population for both juveniles and adults ("Mentally ill landing in jails across the nation," Las Vegas Sun, July 12).

With limited numbers of psychiatric beds available, due in part to the past 40 years of deinstitutionalization and the availability of more modern psychotropic medications, the mentally ill who present as agitated and dangerous to others often end up in jail. Coupled with Southern Nevada's rapidly growing population and high rates of substance abuse, subsequent high rates of mental illness have certainly taxed your existing hospital capacity.

Jails are not inherently designed to provide mental health treatment. I caution that your report of July 12 may be overly optimistic in that jail-based mental health treatment, while constantly improving, cannot be successful in a vacuum. While many of the mentally ill in jail may stabilize and make substantial gains, they often relapse and are recidivistic without individually tailored discharge plans.

Only with a network of community-based treatment providers in a formal agreement with the jail will long-term solutions to this issue be addressed. I strongly suggest that Clark County consult with correctional mental health professionals to develop a comprehensive discharge planning program in order to address the current crisis.

STEVEN J. HELFAND

Editor's note: Steven J. Helfand is director of forensic mental health services at the Nassau County Correctional Center and Nassau University Medical Center on Long Island, N.Y.