Lost Patients
Mental healthcare in America is a maze — by design.
Imagine a sprawling house in which every room, doorway, and hall passage was designed by a different architect. Doorways don't connect. Staircases lead to nowhere. Rooms are cut off from each other. That's how reporter Will James describes our complicated system for treating people with severe mental illness – a system that, almost by design, loses patients with psychosis to an endless loop between the streets, jail, clinics, courts and a shrinking number of hospital beds.
Lost Patients is a deeply-reported, six-part docuseries examining the difficulties of treating serious mental illness through the lens of one city's past, present and future. With real-life testimonials from patients, families, and professionals on the front lines, Lost Patients provides a real, solutions-oriented look at how we got stuck here...and what we might do to break free.
Lost Patients is a joint production of KUOW and Seattle Times. It is distributed by the NPR Network.
Episodes
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Seattle’s troubled past and present suggest a new approach to mental health
The story of Seattle’s first known homeless man and how he was treated speaks to the continuing problems with mental health care 170 years later.
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Acute mental health resource guide – starting points
The mental health care system in Washington state can be convoluted and confusing. KUOW and The Seattle Times looked into the problem in the six-part podcast "Lost Patients." Getting help for mental health issues, and for mental illness like psychosis is not always straightforward, so we compiled a starting list of resources for anyone looking to care for themselves or their loved ones.
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Vulnerable patients caught in ‘churn’ between Washington mental health care systems face life and death circumstances
Lost Patients is a deeply-reported, six-part docuseries examining the difficulties of treating serious mental illness through the lens of one city's past, present and future. With real-life testimonials from patients, families, and professionals on the front lines, Lost Patients provides a real, solutions-oriented look at how we got stuck here...and what we might do to break free.
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50 years ago, many psychiatric hospitals closed. Did that cause today's mental health crisis?
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Who was Lillian Massey? A journey to Northern State psychiatric hospital
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His mom worried he’d wind up dead. But getting him committed was nearly impossible
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A boy named Adam: When psychosis spills onto Seattle streets (Lost Patients podcast)
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Introducing Lost Patients