Arkansas Task Force Issues Recommendations To Improve Mental Health Services
A task force of judges, mental health officials, doctors and nurses on July 8 issued a report on Arkansas' mental health system, identifying several problems, including poor organization among agencies, inadequate funding, outdated laws and a shortage of skilled mental health workers, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The report, commissioned by Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), found that the state is second-to-last in the number of public psychiatric beds per 100,000 people and that only 20% of the state's 100,000 children who required mental health care last year received treatment. The report recommends the state do the following:
- Give the state Mental Health Services Division more power to "form and implement mental health policy";
- Reform mental health laws and regulations to "ensure uniform availability of care";
- Institute mental health parity legislation and other measures that would increase funding for mental health services;
- Modify Medicaid to cover "more effective and more efficient" mental health services;
- Reform the state psychiatric hospital in Little Rock to "lower costs and improve access";
- Increase the number and diversity of mental health care professionals; and
- Build a 16- to 20-bed psychiatric care unit at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and similar units at other community hospitals (Shurley/Bleed, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 7/9).
