Emergency involuntary psychiatric detention rates varied 33-fold across 25 U.S. states, from 29 per 100,000 people in Connecticut to 966 per 100,000 in Florida between 2011 and 2018, according to research published Nov. 3, 2020, in Psychiatric Services.
Researchers — from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs department of social welfare — searched state health and court websites for publicly available counts of involuntary psychiatric detentions. They identified counts from 38 states and determined data from 25 states were usable. Researchers classified the counts as emergency or longer-term detentions and calculated crude rates per 100,000 people using U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
Here are four things to know:
1. In 2014, 24 states accounting for 51.9% of the U.S. population recorded 591,402 emergency involuntary detentions, a crude rate of 357.4 per 100,000 people.
2. Among 22 states with continuous data from 2012 to 2016, the average emergency detention rate increased 13.1%, from 273.2 to 309.0 per 100,000 people. The average state population increased 3.9% during the same period.
3. Eight states provided counts of longer-term detentions. Between 2011 and 2018, rates ranged from 18 per 100,000 people in Oklahoma to 204 per 100,000 in California. Longer-term detention rates averaged 42.2% of states’ mean emergency detention rates during the same period.
4. Only one state provided length-of-stay data, and only Colorado separately reported counts of detentions and people detained. Researchers said these reporting gaps limited interpretation of the findings.
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