The Commonwealth of Virginia is still scrambling to find funds to cut and the newest program to suffer is the statewide pharmacy that serves the mentally ill. The program obtains medications at a discount and distributes them through the local mental health boards. The Community Resource Pharmacy provides medications to those “who were discharged or diverted from state mental hospitals who are unable to pay for their prescriptions” according to The Washington Post. Come January 1, 2010 the boards will be left to find the medications on their own. The implications for area EMS agencies and emergency departments already overwhelmed by the number of psychiatric patients are disastrous.

Continue reading… Virginia cutting its pharmacy for the mentally ill will impact EMS.