Abuse common in Texas mental hospitals

AUSTIN, Texas, May 5 (UPI) -- At least 72 employees at state mental hospitals in Texas have been dismissed in the past three years for assaulting patients, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Hundreds more have been fired for violations like overmedicating patients or sleeping on duty. The newspaper examined personnel records from the 10 state psychiatric hospitals going back to 2005.

Physical abuse included a female patient who was molested in a bathroom and a teenager crying for his mother who was dragged across the room. Employees have also been disciplined for threatening patients with violence or restraining them with chokeholds and headlocks.

Critics say Texas should spend more money on the psychiatric hospitals or on community-based services for the mentally ill.

"You get what you pay for," said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, who has bipolar disorder. "When you financially dumb something down, you make services cheap, something's got to give. Unfortunately, it usually ends up being a mentally ill or disabled Texan."