North Carolina’s Mental Health System Lacks Funding, ‘Vision,’ Critics Say
Unless North Carolina's mental health system finds additional funding and leadership, the state's programs are likely to become "even more scattershot and ineffective" than they already are, a new study has found. The Raleigh News & Observer reports that mental health care advocates presented the study to the state General Assembly in the hopes of securing more funding for the 1.5 million North Carolinians requiring mental health services. Beth Melcher of the North Carolina chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill said that at least $101 million in additional funding is needed to improve community based services; the state currently spends $1.6 billion on mental health programs. Advocates also decried the lack of state leadership on mental health, noting that measures to improve state mental health services "go nowhere" in the state assembly and that the state lacks a director of mental health. Carmen Hooker Buell, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, said, "There is no statewide plan that says who we are going to serve and what services we are going to provide," adding that "there is no rational basis for our current system." Buell said that she is currently "mounting a national search" to find a state director of mental health. However, the advocates stressed that the system needs "someone with political clout and initiative" to garner legislative support for reform, or "the system will continue to fall behind" (Avery, Raleigh News & Observer, 4/24).
Behavioral Health Grant
In other state news, the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust has awarded $195,000 to Step One, a not-for-profit organization in Winston-Salem, N.C., that addresses substance abuse. The grant will be used to develop a program to help the elderly recover from drug and alcohol abuse. According to HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, about 6 million Americans over age 60 are "seriously dependent" on alcohol or prescription drugs. The program will begin in June and will include individual, group and family counseling, as well as educational programs about medication misuse. Program services will be free for those seniors who earn less than the federal poverty level, or $8,590 per individual per year (Railey, Winston-Salem Journal, 4/18).
