For the first time since the 1950s, more states increased their state psychiatric hospital capacity in 2025 by reopening beds in existing hospitals or building new facilities to deal with bed shortages.
In 2002, 50 percent of the 48 states surveyed reported a shortage of psychiatric beds, a number that leapt to 90 percent this year. Psychiatric beds used to treat forensic clients was the most frequently cited category suffering from a shortage. Thirty-eight (38) states reported a shortage of psychiatric inpatient beds in non-state hospitals, with 28 states experiencing shortages of acute psychiatric beds, and 19 reporting shortages of longer-...
