News-Record.com

The state's mental health system has been in the news lately and that news hasn't contained a whole lot of happy thoughts whether you're talking about Guilford County or the state as a whole.

During his year-end interviews, Easley was asked for his agenda items going into next year and brought up corrections to the mental health system spontaneously. He began by pointing back to 2001 when the state mental health reform efforts started at the same time there was a severe budget crisis:

"We were all so bogged down with the budget we weren't paying enough attention to it. It all happened just overnight in late October," Easley said. He said much of the authority for mental health decision making had been transferred to "Local Management Entities," such as the Guilford Center in Guilford County.

"They do not answer to the state. All we are is the banker. You know, we can audit and we can offer suggestions, but they're not accountable to (the Department of Human Services). DHS has been getting a black eye over the system not working and they don't have any way control it.

"They (Local Management Entities) don't answer to the board that appointed them and they don't answer to the county commissioners. Most of them are former providers who are now management entities so they tend to be sympathetic to the providers and that's how we ended up with a lot of the stories you all wrote and saw of what we thought were abuses in the system.

"Now, having said that, some of these LMEs are doing a great job, and some of them are doing a very poor job...The intention was to put more local control on mental health and these people care very much about what they're doing. They really do want to help the mentally ill. It's just are you really doing it the right way and if you're wasting dollars then it hurts.

"So we have to go back and get some kind of control on that and we have to do it in a way that includes the hospitals, because the (public) hospitals have been part of this, and we have to do it in such a way that does not deter or break the moral of those who are offering good service now."

The follow-up question was something like, "Are you talking about bringing more power over mental health care back to the state level?" His answer:

"Back to somebody. Because they don't answer to the legislature either. So I think we're going to have to bring some authority back to the state. How much, I don't know.

"If you had asked me this same question in March or April of last year, I would have laid out a whole plan for you. But since (DHHS Sec. Dempsey Benton ) has gotten into office, we've had some conversations and I've concluded that the plan I had at that point is probably not the best and I'm letting him work through this and I think we'll get some resolution and have to work with the legislators on it."

Click here to listen to Easley's full take on what needs to happen in the mental health arena.

See also Jordan's take over at Capital Letters.