mental health

Crossed from RTB @ Under The Dome

A legislative office created to examine the benefit of public programs was ready to give its report Thursday on the state's mental health services. Anyone could tell from the title "Compromised controls and lack of focus hampered implementation of enhanced mental health services" it wasn't full of compliments.

A chairman of the committee, Sen. Fletcher Hartsell of Concord, said the report was taken off the agenda because the committee didn't have time to talk about it.

Updated with contact information

I lost a friend last night. The mental health system - not in NC, but in Oregon - let her down, and she jumped. Literally. Her spouse had to identify her after they pulled her out of the Willamette River.

How will NC disengorge itself from the mental health crisis? A question of management...

Adam Searing at Progressive Pulse uses a 1966 NC mental health plan as a mirror and jumping off point. Go read the whole thing, but here's the money quote:

"Local governments and the state should band together and create staffed, professional, and, yes, government-run, mental health clinics to serve people who need care. Sure they could contract with other professionals, but core services would always be available in the community."

Without the safety net, no reform will be able to take root. Kudos to Adam for finding this 42 year old lens through which to view a solution to our current crisis.

My 48th birthday was on Monday, Feb. 25th. I work for a non-profit agency that gets most of its funding from the state, so budgets are tight. One year, we weren't able to give cost of living increases, so the board voted to give our birthdays as a personal holiday. What do you choose to do with a personal holiday? Get a manicure, a massage? Maybe some people would. Not me. I chose to haul my butt out of bed early, get stuck in construction, and fight traffic to get to a Forum on Mental Health so that I could listen to most of the candidates for Governor and Lt.Governor talk about the crisis in North Carolina's Mental Health System. As some of you might have realized by now, I am a political geek, but what you might not know is that I've had two family members struggle with mental illness and fall through cracks - one in NJ, and one in NC. So this was a very important day for me.

Today, the Raleigh News and Observer started a series on the sad state of Mental Health “reform” in North Carolina. The 2001 plan was to move care out of central State Hospitals into local communities and have private providers deliver much of the care. This reform was poorly planned, poorly executed, and most telling, went forward with too little oversight.

Pat Smathers is running for Lieutenant Governor, and he's the first candidate to demonstrate an understanding of the depth, breadth, and urgency of our mental health care crisis. In an email sent yesterday in advance of the Mental Health Coalition Forum on Monday in Raleigh, Smathers tells it like it is:

"We must begin an honest conversation about how we can improve mental health care statewide."
[...]
Our mental health system is in crisis. North Carolina is ranked 43rd in the nation for per capita mental health spending. Privatization of the system in 2001, hailed as a solution, has resulted in the closure of hospitals and clinics and ultimately made it harder for many North Carolinians to get help. Our current mental health system is a haphazard array of chronically under-funded programs that have failed all North Carolinians, but most especially our rural residents and veterans."

Mayor Smathers hits the nail on the head. The gang in Raleigh has kicked this can down the road for years, watching as the system grew more and more fragile. With too few exceptions, Raleigh politicians have allowed and encouraged the decline and crisis in our mental health system. Smathers' outsider status couldn't be more welcome than it is in the mental health care crisis arena. Raleigh politicians have cut funding, laughed off the State consultant's recommendations, and counted on public apathy to ignore their failures.

I just received this in email, and though I'd pass it on here. The focus of this forum will be candidates for governor (Democratic and Republican) and Lt. Governor (Democratic) focusing on issues of relevance to people with developmental disabilities, mental health issues, and "sas" issues, which I am assuming are substance abuse issues, but it's not my field, so I'm sure Gordon can correct me if I'm wrong. Anyhow - the really cool thing about this is that we've been asking for these issues to be addressed, and now a whole day will be spent addressing them. Another cool thing - I have that day off. So I'm going, and will either live blog, or write and post later. Anyone care to join me for all or part of the day?

Here's the letter I just zipped off to Congressman Shuler, and here's where I got the facts:

I know Bush's budget is going to undergo a KennyRogersesque transformation when it hits Congress, but I wanted to point out to you the issues about Mental Health spending.

Bush's budget cuts the following:

- the State Incentive Grants for Transformation to support the development of comprehensive plans to address fragmentation in a state’s public mental health system (to be eliminated);
- school violence prevention (to be cut by $17.8 million);
- jail diversion (to be cut by $2.9 million);
- seniors mental health (to be eliminated);
- post traumatic stress ($ 17.5 million cut);
- consumer support technical assistance centers (to be eliminated); and
- suicide prevention ($15.1 million cut).

Our friend Gordon has been relentless in pursuing the answer to the question "What does our next Lieutenant Governor plan to do about the Mental Health Care crisis in North Carolina?"

I'm pleased to report that his question was the first of last night's LG candidates debate.