Reduction in mental health payments not without costs

[HuckleB]

Reduction in mental health payments not without costs

http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/181663-7678-103.html

"Marjorie Towell just got the news late Thursday -- Medicaid is cutting its reimbursement for patients in psychiatric facilities in Indiana. In the past, the federal, state-run program paid $408 a day to provide services. Beginning Nov. 1, she says, Medicaid will cut that figure to $309.

"That represents a huge cost reduction," says Towell, executive director of the Marion County Mental Health Association and a veteran in the mental health wars now raging across the land.

The state already has closed down so much and reduced care for people with mental health needs, she adds. Now, she is trying to calculate: How will this latest move affect the services still in play?

It is a rhetorical question. She knows the answer, and so, very likely, do you. It will mean, tragically, the possibility of more Kenny Andersons and their
victims in our midst. More bloodshed. More pain.

..."

[cornermouse]

1. Mental illness does not necessarily equal homicide.

It really means more people living on the streets in the poor parts of town and in the shelters where they'll be less noticeable to the so-called "nice" people. It means more mentally ill in jail and prison.

By the way, this is also affecting those with drug and alcohol problems and the shelters that serve them as well.

[sr_pacifica]

3. Right

I appreciate the overall message of this article, but the last part about more bloodshed just plays into the stereotype that the mental health community is having to battle---that the mentally ill are scary, dangerous people. Puh-leeze!

[autorank]

5. Agreed but...

...very regrettably, the jails are filled with way too many people with something between mania and psychosis, and they are often untreated. The jail atmosphere exacerbates the mental illness and you've got 'cruel and unusual punishment. I read an article where the Sheriff of LA County was said to run the largest inpatient program for the mentally ill in the country. The stigma would not exist, as we all know, if people would just recognize that there is so much that can be done for people in need. Kerry/Edwards!!!

[Hekate]

8. County jails are the default mental health system in California

It's a crying shame. Often the street folks are dual-diagnosis (mental illness plus drug or alcohol problems) probably due to self-medication, so they come into the system not because they're talking to themselves but because of things like public intoxication.

Locally there's been an emphasis on teaching law enforcement personnel how to deal with the mentally ill, which is not a skill they are necessarily suited for.

Think about it -- most people are drawn to law enforcement because they make a distinction between bad guys and good guys and they want to preserve order. If a person is out of order (breaking the law) they are bad and must be stopped; if irrational behavior escalates, so does the effort to stop it.

Mental illness of course is not about badness and goodness. At a bare minimum, using cops and jails this way is unfair both to the mentally ill and the cops.

I give our law enforcement folks credit for at least recognizing the problem and trying to do something about it. I wish I could say the same about the state and federal government -- and more so the feds because they are manifestly taking money from California and not giving it back (we're now a donor state).

Hekate

[sr_pacifica]

9. Agree---good point n/t

[autorank]

2. This is the God's honest truth!!!

85% of people who use outpatient mental health services (private practice, community mental health, nonprofits) are satisfied that they reached all or most of their goals.

Inpatient services like those described are absolutely critical, Medicaid in particular. I work in an affluent area where most people have choice plans with adequate to liberal out and inpatient coverage. However, when you get to residential services, often critical for serious mental illness, the coverage and ability to pay drops off sharply. There are hundreds of thousands of adults and adolescents who will need inpatient services at some point. Without Medicaid as a safety net, they're stuck in the community with minimal to no services.

The cost is prolonged suffering for the individual and his/her family and the social costs are exponential: loss of life (the population that uses residential services is at high risk for suicide - 10-20%); welfare and other social services for life(a major source of homelessness is due to untreated serious mental illness); plus, for some of this population, incarceration for crimes that never would have been committed were services available.

[xxqqqzme]

4. Is this the part

Norquist wants to drown in a bathtub?

[patdem]

6. So, while bush* wants us all to get 'mental health screening'..we are

reducing mental health programs?? Is there some disconnect here???

[Karenina]

7. Is that a rhetorical question?

;-)