The choices facing people in North Carolina with mental disabilities aren’t exactly plentiful.
The state thankfully has moved away from a system in the 1960s that warehoused and sedated people with mental health issues. But the cost of care is huge, and relying on a network of providers within communities all over North Carolina presents its own set of challenges.
As Telegram staff writer Brie Handgraaf reported in a recent series of stories, people with mental disabilities are vying for resources that are distributed all over the state. Mental health care providers face a tough question: Do they try to provide a little bit of relief for a lot of people? Or do they provide services for the people who need them most?
Neither answer is satisfactory. Since former Gov. Mike Easley pushed in the first part of the new millennium to move the state’s mental health services toward a more community-based system, local providers, hospitals and police departments have had their hands full.
With fewer options for a state-run centralized care system, families trying to find help for their loved ones have turned to less specialized resources. In some cases, people with mental disabilities are taken to regular health care facilities such as hospitals. Under worse circumstances, the mentally challenged find themselves in jail.
With all of the budget needs facing the N.C. General Assembly, lawmakers aren’t eager to pick up the enormous task of retooling mental health services. But it’s clear that something has to be done. Putting someone with schizophrenia in a county jail serves neither the patient nor the public. There has to be a better way to find treatment for people with mental disabilities.
