Testimony was given before the North Dakota Legislature’s Acute Psychiatric Treatment Committee, which will draft proposals for addressing the state’s acknowledged crisis in mental health care.
Consultants offered a raft of recommendations to improve mental health services in North Dakota, including a "dysfunction hotline" to capture complaints of the system's failings to guide improvements.
A consultant's report for a legislative committee said jails still end up taking people in mental health crisis who should be hospitalized — a situation the study compares to Third World countries.
Failing to treat mental illness and addiction imposes huge costs, and investments in behavioral health are "fiscally conservative," according to a Republican leader in the North Dakota Legislature.
More mental health screening in schools and expansion of telehealth services are among steps being taken to fill gaps in behavioral health for children in North Dakota.
FARGO — The Cass County Jail conducted mass testing Tuesday, May 19, for coronavirus in inmates and correctional officers, likely making it the first jail in North Dakota to do so.
JAMESTOWN, N.D. — Christin Eastman was choked, kicked and struck by an assailant while at work cleaning a restroom. The attacker was charged with attempted murder and assault.
A patient, Jason Benefiel, was experiencing delusions that staff members at the state hospital were trying to harm him and he had previously assaulted other employees at the hospital, according to a Jan. 25 report by clinical psychologist Deirdre D’Orazio. She characterized Benefiel’s behavior before the assault of housekeeper Christin Eastman on March 29, 2019, as “behaviorally aggressive and bizarre.”
JAMESTOWN, N.D. — The husband of the victim of an assault and attempted murder at the North Dakota State Hospital in March 2019 told the court Wednesday, March 4, that the incident had devastated his family.
JAMESTOWN, N.D. — The North Dakota State Hospital opened its doors before there was a state of North Dakota. The history of the institution is told through the displays in the North Dakota State Hospital Museum, according to Tonya Perkins, hospital administrator.
