U.S. Psychiatric Bed Distribution: An OPEN MINDS Market Intelligence Report

Access to inpatient psychiatric beds to serve those with mental illness is critically important. Often, inpatient psychiatric beds are not available when needed and those with mental illness are placed in the emergency department and/or prematurely discharged. Currently, there are no effective means for communities to estimate how many psychiatric beds are necessary to meet the demands of their population.

The Treatment Advocacy Center—a nonprofit that is dedicated to eliminating barriers to treatment of mental illness—defines the current industry standard for an adequate number of psychiatric beds as 40 to 60 per 100,000 population. This number . . .