PROVIDENCE, R.I. — M is a 33-year old woman who swallowed silverware. She wasn’t psychotic, or out of touch with reality. She knew it was not a good idea to swallow forks and knives and she wasn’t trying to kill herself. In fact, each time she ingested utensils, she went to the emergency room so that doctors could remove them from her esophagus and stomach. Then the hospital transferred M to the psychiatric unit, where she was assigned to my care.

When I met M she had already been hospitalized 72 times. She’d swallowed silverware — and batteries — before. Sometimes she inserted sharp objects or large doses of medication into her vagina. There are psychiatric patients who cut or burn themselves in an attempt to relieve mental anguish; M did both of these things, too, periodically, but she had primarily developed a maladaptive habit of ingesting or inserting dangerous objects into her body as a means of coping with stress. Each time, she said, she felt better afterward. Then she brought herself to the emergency room for treatment.

M’s case is dramatic. But she is one of countless psychiatric patients who have nowhere to turn for care, other than the E.R. It is well known that millions of uninsured Americans, who can’t afford regular medical care, use the country’s emergency rooms for primary health care. The costs — to patients’ health, to their wallets, and to the health care system — are well documented. Less visible is the grievous effect this shift is having on psychiatric care and on the mentally ill.

Our failure to provide adequate psychiatric care to patients before they are in crisis affects us all. The lack of continuing outpatient care between hospitalizations leaves many psychiatric patients ill and often unmedicated. The consequences are felt in our communities, where the undertreated mentally ill are vulnerable to drug use, criminal recidivism (with additional court and incarceration costs), victimization and suicide.