House Public Health and Food Security Committee Takes Testimony On Psychiatric Bed Shortage In Michigan

The Michigan House Public Health and Food Security Committee took testimony from several mental health advocates on Tuesday, July 1st.  They are considering several proposals to increase the number of psychiatric beds in Michigan:

https://michiganadvance.com/2025/07/02/michigan-mental-health-advocates-discuss-psychiatric-bed-shortage-with-state-lawmakers/

https://www.house.mi.gov/Document/?DocumentId=55206&DocumentType=CommitteeMeetingMinutes

Michigan mental health advocates discuss psychiatric bed shortage with state lawmakers
By Anna Liz Nichols - July 2, 2025

A shortage of psychiatric beds in Michigan is leading to repeated and impractical interactions with law enforcement for individuals in need of mental health care, mental health advocates told state lawmakers Tuesday.

In order to provide the minimum of appropriate care, researchers and the Treatment Advocacy Center regard 30 psychiatric beds for every 100,000 residents living in a state. A 2024 report from the Treatment Advocacy Center, a non profit that advocates for timely access to mental health care, found that Michigan has about 19 beds per 100,000 residents, a shortage of about 1000 beds.

And what that shortage means, particularly for children, is families having to send children going through mental health crises to residential programs in other states, Marianne Huff, president and CEO of the Mental Health Association of Michigan told lawmakers during a meeting of the Michigan House Public Health and Food Security Committee.

And the only ways kids with serious emotional disturbances can access that specialized residential treatment is if they encounter the juvenile justice system, Huff said.

“We really need to broaden and strengthen the continuum of care. Kids should not have to go into the juvenile justice system to get residential treatment, which is typically out of state,” Huff said. “Unless you’ve experienced or had to navigate behaviors with a child with serious emotional disturbance, it can be really hard to imagine how emotionally and physically and psychologically difficult and draining that can be for parents…I think we need to be looking at the full continuum… not just emergency rooms or state hospitals or outpatient. It’s what we can do to mitigate the behavior and the symptoms so that people don’t need to end up in longer term placements.”

Michigan’s lack of temporary long-term placements for individuals experiencing severe mental health crises both impacts the health care system and the criminal justice system that are each doing what they can to make up for Michigan’s lack of robust mental health infrastructure, former Corporate Counsel for the Kalamazoo County Community Mental Health Authority Steven Burnham told lawmakers.

Having spent time working with the county’s community mental health resources, Burnham said he remembers getting confused when a 12-year-old or 15-year-old would be entering the criminal justice system when it was clear they needed mental health resources.

“We’re either all the way here or all the way there, and we have nothing in the middle,” Burnham said. “What we need is access to longer length of stay treatment… state hospital level of care, highly trained, fully staffed, specialized residential options.”

In Grand Traverse County, the county’s sheriff’s office is attempting to address a psychiatric crisis and are unable to connect individuals who are incarcerated with appropriate services in a timely measure, though the department dedicates a great deal of time and money trying, case manager and social worker for the department Sarah Bush told lawmakers.

The department is responsible for 169 incarcerated individuals currently, with 38 individuals being determined to be “severely and persistently mentally ill” Bush said, and 85 of the cases involve diagnosis of substance use and mental health.

When the department attempts to get individuals high acuity hospital beds for individuals experiencing mental health crises, the department has to dedicate an officer to stay with them until they get a bed, which often there is not one that can be made available so they are transported back to the department, Bush said.

This process has cost the sheriff’s department over 197 hours of overtime as officers often have to transport individuals 4 hours down to Detroit to try and get a bed space, Bush said.

“We did start the jail diversion program where we are educating our officers to utilize mental health services… so that’s been working a little, but the bed placement is really where we’re struggling currently,” Bush said.

From a community mental health perspective, Bush said it’s really difficult to see the same people, over and over again, come through the system and eventually get into the court system over issues that should have been addressed by mental health professionals and not necessarily resulted in an arrest. But once an arrest happens, it’s hard for the appropriate mental health services to be provided.

“It’s just a repeating cycle, and it’s a vicious cycle, not only just a healthcare issue, but it is a public safety issue, and without action, this gap in our community is going to continue to grow,” Bush said. “I urge you to increase the number of beds in northern Michigan, because I do feel like it’s been neglected.”