Hampstead Hospital acquisition to enhance state’s mental health system

No plans in place to expand footprint
Mental health care in New Hampshire has had some major issues. Between long stays in emergency rooms waiting for a psychiatric bed to the second highest rate of opioid deaths in the country to accusations of inadequate funding for community-based services, the state has seen its once highly rated mental health system drop precipitously.
In 1990, New Hampshire was ranked second in the country for mental health care in a report commissioned by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI).
By 2006, NAMI’s report gave the state a “D” rating, stating that “NH demonstrates how much funding can be cut in 16 years and how impermanent even exemplary service systems can be.”
After a 10-year mental health pla...