Changes can’t occur without cash

Gov. Sonny Perdue has put forward a bold proposal to remove mental health and addictive diseases from the Department of Human Resources and create a new Department of Behavioral Health. This is a good first step but does nothing to solve the root problem of inadequate funding.

Community mental health and addiction services are starved and demoralized. As Georgia’s population has grown, funding has not kept up. We rank 42nd in the nation in investment in community mental health services. States spend an average of $70 per capita per year providing behavioral health care. Georgia spends a paltry $26.67.

The results are tragic. Less than one-third of our youth who need behavioral health services receive them, according to estimates. Mental health providers are severely stressed by inadequate rates, restrictive criteria and slow payment. The adult system fares no better. People are dying in the streets and in the state’s mental hospitals because the community system does not have the capacity to provide the care they need.

Programs that are showing good outcomes are in danger of closure. Georgia’s certified peer specialist program, a national model, pairs those diagnosed with mental illness with those who have undergone treatment. But it is being scaled back as an austerity measure, even as it is being replicated around the country.

State dollars that were allocated for the vital work of substance abuse prevention are now victims of budget cuts, leaving only inadequate federal funds to stem the tide of addiction. Georgia’s Crisis and Access Line (GCAL) received nearly 300,000 calls last year, handling 145,000 individual cases. About one-fourth were crisis situations, and over 3,000 emergency dispatches were made. Although calls increased 13 percent last year, GCAL is now slated for a 6 percent cut. If 10 percent cuts are ordered later in the year, it will be eliminated.

State hospitals are overwhelmed as people who can’t get community services are admitted again and again. The hospitals, crowded, inadequately staffed, and with poor management, are plagued by deaths and abuse. A recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services review found that patients are in “immediate jeopardy” at Georgia Regional Hospital/Atlanta, which faces a separate investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

The broader community also suffers. Georgia’s emergency rooms routinely house seriously ill people for days waiting for a state hospital bed. Many people who can’t get treatment tragically end up behind bars. An estimated 60 percent of the youth in Department of Juvenile Justice custody have mental illnesses. More people with mental illnesses are “served” in Georgia’s prisons and jails than are served in state mental hospitals.

Most of these people can and would live successful, productive lives in the community if they could get the help they need there. Georgia’s abysmal high school graduation rate continues unabated as youth with untreated mental illnesses and addictive diseases drop out of school at twice the rate of others. This is a terrible, unnecessary waste of potential. When youth have access to the treatment they need, most are successful in school and life.

We applaud the creation of a Department of Behavioral Health, but there must also be adequate funding. Mental health and addiction services must be exempt from budget cuts. The General Assembly must increase funding to move us to at least the national average so that people disabled by mental illnesses and addictive diseases can recover and rejoin society as contributing members.

We also need visionary planning and strong leadership. To aid in the transition, we urge Gov. Perdue to appoint an interim board for the new Department of Behavioral Health now. This interim board, including consumers, family members and providers, will bring fresh ideas, oversight and community support to the effort to improve mental health and addiction services in Georgia. Lives depend on it.

> Pierluigi Mancini is the chairman of the Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council.

> Ellyn Jeager is the president of the Georgia Mental Health Services Coalition.