NAMI Eastside News - From the Editor: November 2002

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NAMI EASTSIDE
Family Resource Ctr.
16315 NE 87th Street
Suite B-11
Redmond, WA 98052
425-885-NAMI (6264)
info@nami-eastside.org

NAMI Eastside News - From the Editor

The NAMI Eastside News “From the Editor” column is penned by Susan Rynas. You can reach Susan via e-mail at sgrynas@yahoo.com (include "Newsletter” in subject line) or contact the NAMI Eastside office at 425-885-NAMI (6264).

FROM THE EDITOR: NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2002

Many NAMI Eastside members have had a rough two months since publication of our last newsletter. Families and consumers are being squeezed unmercifully due to mental health budget cuts already completed. Various numbers of us have been run ragged moving from one crisis to another in an attempt to hold the line and simply not lose valuable ground/services for our loved ones. We are currently moving from crisis to catastrophe yet we will not be pushed in this direction willingly or quietly.

The report below regarding the status of our nation's mental health delivery systems will come as no surprise to families and consumers. It simply confirms what we already know, our lived experience. But, take heart, there is strength in numbers and many good people accompany us on this inexplicable journey.

On September 16, 2002, the National Council on Disability, a 15-member independent federal panel, released a report that examines some of the root causes of the current national crisis in the delivery of needed treatment services within the publicly funded mental health system.

"One of the most significant findings of this report is that children and youth who experience dysfunction at the hands of mental health and educational systems are much more likely to become dependent on failing systems that are supposed to serve adults. In parallel fashion, adults whose mental health service and support needs are not fulfilled are very likely to become seniors who are dependent on failing public systems of care. In this fashion, hundreds of thousands of children, youth, adults and seniors experience poor services and poor life outcomes, literally from cradle to grave".

Other findings:

There needs to be a dramatic shift in aspirations for people with psychiatric disabilities. Mental health systems need to be based on values that see recovery as achievable and desirable.

Visionary leadership, necessary funding and best practice models, (including consumer-directed programs) are essential to success.

In addition to medication management and basic counseling, a healthy mental health system must also deliver housing, transportation, and employment. The whole person must be the treatment focus, not merely the identified psychiatric symptoms.

Entrenched thinking, ineffective service-delivery programs and stagnant bureaucracies hinder movement toward systemic change.

Most states ration care in a manner that requires people to "hit bottom" before receiving needed mental health services.

Most states have a number of patchwork systems that are called upon to deliver care rather than a single, cohesive treatment system.

Most states lack a guiding vision of how to provide mental health care most effectively.

Most states lack funding to actually deliver treatment services to eligible persons and use "wait lists" to further limit access to services.

Beyond funding, a most significant access barrier is that, except for psychiatric hospitals, the public mental health system is only "open" from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Other systems are open 24/7 and have ended up taking a larger share of people in crisis. These "open" systems are law enforcement, jails and prisons, emergency rooms, and homeless shelters.

"Through neglect or underfunding, the public mental health system in many states has effectively closed its doors, through the use of waiting lists, priorities for service, and disqualification of people who are thought hard to serve or treatment resistant. As a consequence, adults with mental illness have increasingly found themselves caught up with law enforcement, the judicial system and the correctional system".

This tragic failure to provide mental health services and supports leads daily to tragic consequences for people with psychiatric disabilities, their families, and for society at large.

To view the report, please see www.ncd.gov. The report was sent to President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. This Commission issued its own Interim Report 2 on November 2nd which arrived at similar conclusions. To view this report, go to: http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/reports/reports.htm.

Till next time. Take good care. Susan