Emergency Psychiatry Program

The Emergency Psychiatry Program at St. Joseph's is the only provider of 24-hour emergency psychiatric services for Onondaga and Madison counties. Designed to serve 2,000 patients per year, the unit sees nearly 6,500 in that time.

These numbers are a reflection of a 20 percent increase in patient volumes over the last seven years, due in part to the loss of 100 inpatient psychiatric beds in Central New York over the last four. Stepping back to observe the six-county area as a whole, the statistics are even more alarming: while the need for psychiatric services has tripled in four years, the number of available beds has decreased by 27 percent.

Spatial issues are also a major concern at St. Joseph's Emergency Psychiatry Program. The facility itself is 3/4 of a mile away from the ED, making for long transports of those in need of emergency medical help. Additionally, the waiting room is extremely overcrowded and forces patients of varying degrees of sickness - and danger to themselves and others - to wait together for hours on end.