Mary Neal's Sharebook 

The Clarion Ledger - May 25, 2010 - During the past session, Gov. Haley Barbour, of Mississippi, proposed closing some of the state's mental health facilities, saying the state relies too much on residential services instead of community-based treatment. His plan would have saved $18 million in Fiscal Year 2011 and another $10 million in 2012 by closing four residential mental health facilities and six of the seven crisis mental health centers.

While moving to more community-based systems is a laudable goal, the plan to close key residential centers as well as crisis centers would have been a major setback in services to the mentally ill. In some areas, it would mean locking them away in jails, something the state has sought to move away from with crisis centers.

The Legislature didn't adopt Barbour's plans, but the trickle down effect is taking hold.

Money was not provided to pay matching funds for Medicaid services provided by the 15 community-based centers. The Board of Mental Health has said the centers must pay the debt or no longer be approved as providers. Department of Mental Health Executive Director Ed LeGrand, who has been warning of this potential crisis for months, says the department cannot pay $12 million needed without closing residential services. Community mental health center budgets are built on Medicaid.

It is a complex issue that most likely is headed to court and will need a legislative solution, not only for this year but for coming years. A study committee has been looking at mental health issues.

Ultimately, there must be a unified philosophy and approach that allows the state to coordinate and utilize community-based centers with the goal of preventing and reducing need for residential care, something that has not seemed to be politically possible so far.

There doesn't appear to be a debate over the advantages of community-based care, but how to do it without pushing down costs and in a manner that maintains a uniform approach and standards.

The solution is simply closing residential centers or pushing down costs locally and impacting services to some of the most vulnerable people in the state.

Mary's comment:

GOVERNOR, JAIL IS NOT CHEAPER.  I hope mentally ill people in Mississippi and their families sue the state for forcing them out of residential facilities into jails if the state adopts that plan.  Prison profiteering saves taxpayers nothing, plus it is immoral and discriminatory.  When treatment and care are withheld from mentally ill Americans, they should do as Ohio Mentally Ill inmates did - sue for discrimination.  Only mental illness is answered with imprisonment.  All other sick and handicapped persons are treated for their health conditions.  That is not "liberty and justice for all."

Full news article at http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20100525/OPINION01/5250317/Mental-health-Cuts-trickle-down

Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/
Assistance to the incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

JAIL IS THE LAST THING MENTAL PATIENTS NEED ... AND TOO OFTEN, JAIL IS THE LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join us in our quest to decriminalize mental illness in America. No one should be punished for having a disability.