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Provide funds to treat the mentally ill

Gov. Gary Locke's proposed budget cuts to mental health programs could have dire consequences in South Sound.

The governor is proposing a 3 percent across-the-board cut, which translates into an $890,727 cut in Thurston and Mason county community mental health treatment programs.

John Masterson, chief executive officer of Behavioral Health Resources, said the loss of state and federal funds would mean 225 fewer South Sound residents would receive the basic mental counseling and medical services they need.

If the state Legislature goes along with the cuts, mental health providers would have to turn people away -- at the same time the state is shifting more mentally ill patients out of state mental hospitals and placing them in community-based programs.

Masterson said those mentally ill men, women and children who are less ill simply won't have publicly financed treatment options available to them. Or low-income individuals who currently qualify for mental health services will no longer be eligible because the income thresholds will be raised.

Ripple effects

The bottom line: This community will be less secure and taxpayers simply will pay in other ways.

Hospital emergency room physicians and nurses will deal with more mentally ill individuals in crisis.

Law enforcement officers are going to deal with more mentally ill offenders because they haven't gotten the treatment or medications to keep their illnesses in check.

Crimes will be committed and jails will fill with the mentally ill.

Children with behavior disorders -- perhaps fostered by physical or sexual abuse -- will act out in class, disrupting the education of their classmates.

The ripple effects are endless and will most likely cause a shift in expenditures, not a reduction.

Look elsewhere

The governor's budget proposal is terribly shortsighted in that regard.

Lawmakers simply must look to other areas for budget cuts.

One place to start looking is in the administrative overhead costs of the state's mental health delivery system.

Longtime state residents have seen the swings of the mental health pendulum.

For a period of time, the state treats the mentally ill in state institutions. Concerns about the quality of care arise and suddenly the state shifts directions and focuses on community-based mental health treatment programs.

Caught in the middle

Then a high-profile case or two sparks public outrage and the pendulum swings back toward institutionalization.

Back and forth it goes, and those providing services are caught in the middle. When treatment providers see fewer clients, doctors and psychiatrists are blamed. The blame rightfully belongs with those who set state and federal budgets for treatment of the mentally ill.

The pendulum today is swinging in favor of community-based treatment. State budget writers are shrinking the size of the state mental health hospitals and putting those patients -- some of whom have been in state treatment for years -- into communities where it's less costly to treat them.

Surely additional dollars can be saved at the state level and funneled to the 14 residential support networks scattered around the state. Those networks contract with nonprofit organizations to provide community-based treatment programs.

Invest wisely

Taxpayers are going to pay one way or another to treat the mentally ill -- either in direct service to those in need or by hiring more police officers, more judges, more prosecutors and building bigger jails. Or by being asked for contributions by nonprofit organizations that help shelter and feed the homeless, many of whom have mental illness.

Surely, for the sake of compassion for the mentally ill and for the sake of community safety, it makes more sense to invest dollars in treatment.

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The Olympian Copyright 2002

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