A plan to spend more than $10 million to address a shortage of mental health beds has passed the New Hampshire House.
The money would pay for a number of efforts including renovations at existing hospitals to make room for more mental health beds, a new mobile mental health crisis unit, and new transitional housing for people who are released from inpatient psychiatric care.
Together, the investments are designed to end a practice known as emergency room boarding -- where psychiatric patients are held, sometimes against their will, in emergency rooms because there are no mental health beds available.
The state is currently being sued over this practice.
