Report: Mental health reform needs reform
From the working lede of a story for tomorrow's paper:
RALEIGH - Some mental health patients find it hard or impossible to get the services they need because government officials and mental health care providers have struggled to keep up with the rapid pace of changes demanded by North Carolina's mental health reform effort, according to a consultants report release Wednesday.The 91-page document does point to some successes, but is clear that the state needs to move rapidly to fix "gaps" in the system.
Most of its criticism revolves around a central theme: the pace of change focused state and local governments on remaking the bureaucracy while leaving some mental health consumers unable to find care.
"In the rush to complete structural changes, the public partners have lost sight of the effect on consumers," the report says. "(T)here has been insufficient joint effort at resolving consumer access problems."
Click here for the online version of the story.
You can click here to read the whole consultant's report. (Large MS Word Document)
I called the Guilford Center late Wednesday afternoon and officials there have not had a chance to read through it. I'm supposed to catch up with them tomorrow. In fact, most of the people I spoke to Wednesday were still plowing through the 91 page document.
If you give it a read through, what are your questions? If you're involved in the mental health care system either as a provider or patient or in government, is this a fair assessment of where things stand?