A law to protect Washington health care workers keeps patients in crisis
A law to protect Washington health care workers keeps patients in crisis
If someone is in psychiatric crisis, a state law could take them away from mental health help — and land them in jail, a Seattle Times and Marshall Project investigation found.
Under Washington state law, any assault on a health care worker can be a felony — including spitting, slapping or other actions that might otherwise be treated as minor offenses with fewer consequences for the accused. The decades-old statute was meant to protect providers, who are increasingly harmed in violent attacks.
But an investigation by The Seattle Times and The Marshall Project found the majority of the people charged by King County prosecutors under that law showed signs of serious mental illness, with dozens of patients in severe crisis punished for behavior that landed them in the hospital in the first place.
From 2018 through 2022, county prosecutors filed 151 cases for felony assault on a health care worker. Court records show that 76% of these cases were filed against people with signs of serious mental illness. That included people who were involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility, were in an emergency room for a mental health evaluation or had EMTs respond to their mental health crisis.
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Its a complex topic. On the one hand, retard police routinely put people who are violent but not for psych reasons on psych holds because it's less paperwork, and makes them the health systems problem instead of theirs.
On the other hand, psych nursing and medsurg nursing are two different skillsets and most medsurg nurses dont know their ass from emvironmental safety.
On the third hand, Doctors tend to be activist dipshits that routinely put staff's safety at risk by undermedicating.
Is any of this the fault of people going through a legitimate crisis event? No.