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\t\t National crisis<\/p>\n Nationally, the number of state hospital beds for adults with serious mental health issues reached a historic low in 2023 with 36,150 beds, more than half<\/a> of them occupied by people who have been committed to the hospital through the criminal legal system, according to the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center. That\u2019s a 17% decline in beds from 2017, the organization found. The shortage of beds means a range of states have similar waitlists. <\/p>\n \u201cThere really isn\u2019t any state where this hasn\u2019t become an increasingly visible problem \u2014 and it\u2019s actually expanding in scope rapidly over the last decade,\u201d Lisa Daly, the executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center said. <\/p>\n In some ways, the worsening trend is part of an intractable paradox, Daly said. Courts are \u201cdoing a better job over time of identifying when mental illness appears to be a factor in why somebody might\u2019ve been arrested or why somebody might be facing criminal charges.\u201d <\/p>\n But the infrastructure \u2014 the beds available at secure treatment facilities, along with the staffing levels to make those beds operational \u2014 has not adjusted to the increasing demand. <\/p>\n Instead of waiting for evaluations, now people are waiting for treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cReally what that does is it changes where the bottleneck is,\u201d Daly said. <\/p>\n Need for change<\/p>\n Construction is underway to add 80 beds to Alabama\u2019s sole psychiatric facility for men, which has 140 beds and serves just over 200 people, according to an annual report published in 2024.<\/p>\n However, there is a significant staffing shortage and the added beds will only be usable if the state can hire enough staff, according to The Alabama Reflector<\/a>. Boswell said an average pay increase of roughly $6 an hour in 2024 is helping with recruitment and retention.<\/p>\n Boswell said at a recent budget hearing that her agency is working with the judges presiding over the consent decree to improve the time it takes to get evaluated and then treated.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Mental Health declined to comment to multiple e-mailed requests.<\/p>\n The department also trained 94 people for competency restoration programs in jails to relieve the burden on Taylor Hardin, court records show. Programs now exist in five of Alabama\u2019s 67 counties and are slated to expand to three more.<\/p>\n
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