|
Mental health a sore point |
|
Dec 16, 2006 - A sweeping report on the state mental health system faults North Carolina for failing to provide mentally ill people and drug abusers with consistent and continuous care. The state would need to spend an additional $2.7 billion over five years to get things right, according to a report by consultants that was released Friday. But even legislators sympathetic to the needs for improved mental health services say the state won't be able to add $500 million a year over the next five years to the mental health budget. "It is going to be a terribly depressing year where those kinds of services are concerned, to know what the needs are and what people will be hurt as a result of that and not be able to do anything about it," said Sen. Vernon Malone, a Raleigh Democrat. The legislature pumped an additional $100 million into mental health services and housing this year. Politicians were responding to criticism that changes they made in 2001 failed to achieve the promise of providing care close to patients' homes rather than in state institutions. Though the shake-up in the mental health system five years ago had a goal of increasing community treatment, state hospitals are still a first stop rather than a last resort for many, the report says. By Lynn Bonner
|
