Wake County, North Carolina, Addresses Mental Health Care Services Access and Quality

Officials in Wake County, North Carolina, are looking for ways to ease the region's "overburdened" mental health system, under which some patients are waiting up to two months to receive treatment, the Raleigh News & Observer reports. Over the past two years, the county's waiting list for services more than doubled. To help reduce the waiting list, the county is considering expanding the number of contracts it has with community-based providers, which often are able to see patients faster. Of the 540 Wake County residents receiving mental health services through the county Human Services Department, 30% are being treated by such providers. The county currently contracts with Triangle Family Services, Family and Youth Inc., and Evergreen, and is "working on deals" with two other groups. The county pays the agencies a "negotiated rate" -- usually $80 an hour -- for each client whom it refers there for treatment.

Quality
The county also plans by the end of the year to establish a monitoring system to determine "whether these patients are receiving quality care," the Observer reports. The monitoring process will be based on standards used at the county's offices of child mental health or developmental disabilities, which have used private contractors "for years." Meg Houseworth, the county human service department's director of adult services, said, "We have to figure out what the benchmark is for saying someone is better. Creating the benchmarks will be hard, but in the long run, we do hope it will be better for the client" (Rochman, Raleigh News & Observer, 8/16).