Study will try to improve how mentally ill are cared for in ERs Hospitals have seen increase in mentally ill patients.

Mental health experts in Austin are hoping a research project will help them revamp the way psychiatric patients are treated in emergency rooms.

Advocacy Inc., an Austin-based organization focused on disability rights, is examining what happens to mentally ill patients brought to Austin hospitals because of a psychiatric crisis. The organization will look at things such as how they are medically cared for, how staffers treat them personally and how the environment of often-chaotic emergency rooms affects their mental illnesses.

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