Psychiatrist and author Christine Montross, MD, wrote in an opinion piece for the New York Times (8/4, SR5, Montross, Subscription Publication) that there are “countless psychiatric patients who have nowhere to turn for care, other than the” emergency department. “It is well known that millions of uninsured Americans, who can’t afford regular medical care, use the country’s emergency rooms for primary healthcare.” She asserted that the failure to provide care for these people is detrimental to society in general. Montross suggested that “a basic level of outpatient psychiatric care” be offered to help stem the problem.
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— “The Woman Who Ate Cutlery, “Christine Montross, The New York Times, August 4, 2013.