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 Will the Courts Fix Mental Health?
by Tom Campbell
July 5, 2007
What is it going to take to fix our mental health system? Of all the screaming needs in our state, and there are a multitude of them, none is more inhumane or inexcusable than the failure to address and fix this crisis.
When mentally ill patients are turned out into the streets or, worse yet, put in jails because we have neither adequate hospital beds, available expertise, sufficient budgets, nor effective policies that provide the care they need, it is quite obvious our system has failed. You know it, mental health professionals know it, our state’s elected and appointed leaders know it, so we ask again, what is it going to take to fix our mental health system? Or perhaps, more accurately, who?
We are constantly being told about the lack of money, but that is a lame excuse. A state with a twenty billion dollar budget has the money. What we lack is the moral imperative, proper prioritization of resources, and leadership.
None of us is so naďve as to believe the solutions are simple. A legislative study commission has concluded it will take bucketsful of money and different approaches from the failed policies we currently have in place.
Our legislature is working on a parity bill that will require insurance companies to fund mental illness just as it does other health care. While the bill is weaker than many would like, it is a step in the right direction. However, it will provide little help for those on the streets or in jail. They likely don’t have health insurance.
We’ve been here before. When our prisons were “hot bunking” inmates because of overcrowded conditions, a lawsuit forced the state into action. We fixed the problems. When we were obviously not providing the “sound basic education” required by our Constitution, a lawsuit forced North Carolina to address the issues and a determined judge won’t allow us to stop until we succeed.
The irony is that in both instances we knew the problems and we basically knew what needed to be done, but we delayed and spent precious resources in courts instead of doing the right thing. Perhaps what it will take is another lawsuit for the state to do as it ought for the mentally ill.
It is shameful to think that the only solution to our mental health crisis is a court order, but mental health advocates are openly suggesting such actions. It will be costly, time consuming and will graphically demonstrate our failures, and, at the end of the day, will likely require North Carolina to do what we know we need to do.
Are we willing to turn over to the courts yet another essential task? The Apostle Paul tells the Thessalonians to not be weary in doing what is right. That was good advice 2,000 years ago and equally sound today. |
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