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$10 Million Plan to Address E.R. Boarding Crisis Headed to Governor's Desk

Daniel S. Hurd via Flickr CC

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.

Jason Moon is a senior reporter and producer on the Document team. He has created longform narrative podcast series on topics ranging from unsolved murders, to presidential elections, to secret lists of police officers.
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