A former patient of an Idaho program that sought to keep people with severe psychosis on their medication has died, providers said. It was the third death since the Idaho Health and Welfare Department cut the program, called Assertive Community Treatment, in December amid statewide budget shortages.
The man who died was living in the Treasure Valley, said Laura Scuri, who had contracted with the state to run the Boise chapter of the program, in an email to the Idaho Statesman. Providers have declined to name the former patients who died, citing legal requirements around patient confidentiality.
“Destabilization is already occurring,” Scuri and Ric Boyce, another former leader of the program, wrote in a news release announcing the death. “The increase in deaths makes that undeniable.”…