May 21, 2013

Inland News Today: Mental patients victims of 'Greyhound Therapy'

INLAND EMPIRE – (INT) – The local region is on the receiving end of Nevada’s ‘patient dumping’.

A recent investigation found that the Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas bused approximately 1,500 mentally ill patients out of Nevada over the past five years.

The investigation showed that 500 patients were sent to California. Twenty-seven wound up in the Inland Empire.

Riverside Congressman Mark Takano deplored the shipping of patients with a history of mental illness to other states.

Takano said that ‘Greyhound Therapy,’ as it’s called, is unethical and disgraceful.

In a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, he said it’s “an illegal attempt by Nevada to evict members of the state's most vulnerable population to benefit its bottom line."