Psychologists urged for inpatient psychiatry integration

Despite rising rates of mental illness and growing demand for psychiatric care, inpatient services remain underfunded and understaffed. Mental health care dollars allocated to inpatient treatment dropped from 42% in 1986 to just 28% in 2019 — even as overall spending soared from $32 billion to $106 billion, say researchers of a Viewpoint article in JAMA Psychiatry calling for integrating clinical psychologists into inpatient psychiatric care. This imbalance has fueled a cycle of inadequate care, resource‐driven decisions, and persistent workforce shortages, they stated.