Psych bed database inspired by C.A.R.E.S. Task Force recommendation

State Rep. Mary Whiteford’s plan to ensure every person experiencing a mental health crisis has a place to go has been signed into law.

House Bill 5439 establishes the Inpatient Psychiatric Bed Registry, a statewide database of all inpatient psychiatric beds. The Department of Health and Human Services will develop and maintain the database with information about the number and location of available psychiatric beds and make the database accessible to the appropriate health care facilities and providers.

Last term, Whiteford served on the House C.A.R.E.S. bipartisan mental health task force. She says this is a common-sense solution to a serious problem across the state, which she and her colleagues heard about time after time from mental health professionals throughout Michigan.

“We learned that when a person in crisis arrives in an emergency room, staff may work for days calling hospital after hospital to find an appropriate bed while the person waits, untreated, until a bed is found. With this registry, the staff can log on and see every available bed in the state, and only call those hospitals.” said Whiteford, of Casco Township. “The development of the database allows people to receive prompt medical attention when they are in distress.”

House Bill 5439 is now Public Act 657 of 2018.

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