Arkansas Task Force to Offer Recommendations for Area Mentally Ill
Over the next two weeks, the Northwest Arkansas Mental Health/HIV Crisis Stabilization Task Force, plans to release draft recommendations on psychiatric treatment options for people with mental illnesses, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. Task force subcommittees met Sept. 30 to discuss some of the recommendations, including:
- Establishing 12 inpatient psychiatric beds in a general hospital by July 1, 2003, and another 12 beds in the next "two to five years";
- Having the Arkansas State Hospital in Little Rock "guarantee" that 11% of its acute psychiatric beds are available for committed Northwest Arkansas patients;
- Establishing space in the new Washington County Jail for up to 16 prisoners from the surrounding four-county area for "evaluation and treatment"; and
- Securing grant funding to establish "specially trained" law enforcement teams to deal with mentally ill people police encounter.
The task force, made up of mental health care providers, law enforcement officials and hospital representatives, crafted the recommendations in order to "fill holes in the local mental health system," the Democrat-Gazette reports (Smith, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/1). A report issued in July identified several problems with Arkansas' mental health system, including poor organization among agencies, inadequate funding, outdated laws and a shortage of skilled mental health workers. 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 recommended that the state 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"; and give the state Mental Health Services Division more power to "form and implement mental health policy" (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 7/10). The subcommittees plan to meet Oct. 10 to finalize their recommendations, and the full task force will submit their recommendations to the Legislature Oct. 16 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/1).
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