There is no reason to form a new task force for evaluation.
We know the census. It has remained constant for years.
No more appropriation of funds needed to look in to the problem. We can quit spending money looking for reasons.
The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations launched a top-to-bottom review of the country's mental health system, beginning in January 2013. The investigation revealed the approach by the federal government to mental health is a chaotic patchwork of antiquated programs and ineffective policies across numerous agencies.
Not only is this frustrating for families in need of medical care, but when left untreated, those with mental illness often end up in our criminal justice system or on the streets. The mentally ill are no more violent than anyone else, and in fact are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators. But those individuals with untreated serious mental illness are at an increased risk of violent behavior. Tragically, undertreated mental illness has been linked to homicides, assaults, and suicides. Refusing police directions, as they could not discern what was happening, has resulted in shooting these people dead. I witnessed this in Baltimore, MD.
It is a national problem that needs legislation. At the state level, many have tried and failed. State funding goes hand in hand. At first, budgets had high dollar figures. But things became frustrating since the money didn't solve the problem. In turn, the failures resulted in cuts to state budgets. The questions, "where is the bang for the bucks" we spent and "what is our return on investment" while spending those funds? No big bangs heard. There was no return on investments where interest and dividends were never paid on the investment. The system was not self-sustaining. It was a financial investment loss. As such, the dead horse has been beaten and today state legislators continue to beat on the dead horse with different bats. Some left the budget the same but placed more responsibilty on their departments, trying to squeeze some form of ROI. Some states have chairmen of appropriations who take the human element out of the equation. I have been told, face to face, that appropriations put money in to the system and, as such, they have the right to also take money away. There was a tear in the Senator's eye and could only say, I'm sorry.
A personal story of mine comes from running for a state's House of Representatives. Once you have won your primary your mailbox becomes full of letters and questioners, your e-mail inbox reaches it maximum size plus your phone started ringing as well. Every entity that received state funding in the past wanted more money. It was expressed in the way of a need, not a want. I would respond with a request for reply to my questions, what have you done to resolve the problems within your agency and since the pie pan is the same size as last year, whose slice of the pie should be made smaller so your agency would have a larger slice of the pie? I expected replies. I had but one reply, the Association of Community Mental Health Centers. They were able to convince me of "Pay me now", a small amount if a person was in treatment, or "Pay me later", a large amount if the person went the route of local jail and in to the state correctional system.
I also learned about CIT, crisis intervention team, that had police going through a 40 hour class of crisis intervention training. What surprised me most, officers took their paid vacation time to take the class. They were volunteering their free time to study mental illness, knowing their personal investment would make their on-duty time easier. The time savings in transporting in-mates to state facilities was a huge cost saver. Having more time to work their beat increased greatly since they did not have to wait hours and hours waiting in an Emergency Room. It started by compassionate officers volunteering their free time, a remarkable act of random kindness.
An action of Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis would fix the nation's broken (or never completed) mental health system by focusing programs and resources on psychiatric care for patients and families who are the most in need of services.
States will contend that such a mindset is unconstitutional as it prevents the states from making their own laws, a Jefferson approach. However, the rebuttal is organizations, such as ALEC, advocate for the same law of like mind be passed in all states.
Who wants to take the responsibility for the consequences of the epidemic we have?
I'll wait for another day to discuss the ramifications of spending money with such a high deficit. I promise I will post about the Federal Reserve, a federal reserve note, a US Treasury Bill and what an economy is. It won't be tomorrow, but it will be before I intend to end this blog.
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