ProJo: Opinion/Lessing: RI has abandoned its most vulnerable

May 11, 2022

Benedict F. Lessing, Jr. | Guest columnist

Benedict F. Lessing Jr. is president and CEO of the Community Care Alliance.

Rhode Island had a nationally recognized behavioral health system. What is happening is unconscionable: a state-run hospital full, hundreds of homeless people suffering with serious mental illness and addiction; overdose deaths weekly, a system collapsing.

The adult system is bad but services for children are not much better. Children are being boarded in emergency departments, psychiatric units have waitlists, and kids get stuck in hospitals for weeks and months for lack of treatment resources. Community organizations that once had robust teams with emergency, outpatient and intensive outreach services are a shadow of what they were.

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