• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Hospitals, Jails, Shelters Seeing More Mentally Ill, Report Says

Posted on: Tuesday, 30 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

sfinn@wvgazette.com

Mentally ill people are flooding the state's hospitals, jails and homeless shelters because the state has cut money for community supports, according to a new report.

The West Virginia Behavioral Healthcare Providers Association released the study last week. They want to prevent further reductions to the Medicaid program, the federal-state health-care program that serves many mentally ill and disabled people.

Bad things happen when the state ignores the mentally ill, the report says:

* David Morris of Summersville didn't receive the help he needed to control his schizophrenia, and shot and killed Nicholas County Deputy Sheriff William Giacomo.

* Alfred Benton of Beckley was jailed after he assaulted his neighbor and tore down his fence. Benton is mentally retarded, and his mother says he "needs help and I just can't control him since his daddy died. He's just too strong for me to care for." But there's no program that can provide for his needs.

The report borrows heavily from the Gazette-Mail series "Brother's Keeper," which earlier this year described the disintegration of the state's mental health system.

Between 2000 and 2003, state officials cut Medicaid payments for mental health prevention and treatment by almost half, $30 million, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the number of commitments to mental hospitals jumped 45 percent, the number of mentally ill people in jails nearly doubled, and the state's suicide rate jumped to record levels.

Also, the number of mentally ill homeless people being served by the state Medicaid program quadrupled from 247 to 1,720 between 2001 and 2003, according to a Department of Health and Human Resources report quoted in the study.

It's the "Pillsbury Doughboy" effect, a phrase state DHHR Secretary Martha Yeager Walker has used.

If you push the doughboy in one area, he bulges out in another. And if you cut the wrong programs, taxpayers spend more money for emergency room visits, jails, homeless shelters and mental hospitals.

At the very least, the state should make sure there are no further cuts in Medicaid funding for behavioral health, said Ann Stottlemyer, former state Medicaid commissioner and the author of the report.

"We were taking cuts when nobody else was, and other providers were getting increases," Stottlemyer said.

Instead, state lawmakers should invest in programs with a proven track record of helping people and saving taxpayers money, such as the Assertive Community Treatment program, the report says.

ACT provides mentally ill people with one-on-one counseling, medication assistance and help finding housing, transportation and employment.

A recent study showed that ACT reduced the number of days participants spent in the mental hospital from an average of 90 per year to 18.

A year in the state mental hospital costs state taxpayers about $200,000. A year in the ACT program cots about $8,500.

But the program is only available in the Charleston and Clarksburg areas, in part because the state pays too little for mental health centers to provide the program, according to John Russell, director of the state Behavioral Healthcare Providers Association.

Also, the people who work with the mentally ill and retarded need a pay raise, the report says.

Workers at Appalachian Health Center, based in Elkins, have gone 10 years with no cost-of-living increases. Southern Highlands in Princeton hasn't given workers a raise since 1999.

Low salaries lead to high turnover and high levels of burnout among people who work with the mentally ill and retarded, Russell said.

The state of West Virginia recognized the problems in behavioral health, according to John Bianconi, the new acting director of the state agency that deals with mental health, the Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities.

But with federal Medicaid officials capping the program and medical costs rising fast, "I don't see how [mental health] could be held harmless from cuts. But I don't know yet," he said.

Bianconi is trying to deal with a flood of people coming into the state's two mental hospitals. On a recent weekday, all beds were full at both facilities and the state had sent 66 people to private facilities. Last year, those "diversions" cost taxpayers $3.5 million.

One possibility is expanding Bateman Hospital in Huntington, something advocates say would be a step toward the re- institutionalization of the mentally ill. Another is to find some way to expand community services, such as group homes and ACT programs.

"I don't think we disagree on the approach," Bianconi said. "It's finding the resources to do it."

To contact staff writer Scott Finn, use e-mail or call 357-4323.

Source: Sunday Gazette - Mail; Charleston, W.V.

More News in this Category