Mental health LTE Fact Check
There was a letter to the editor in today's edition that basically cheered DHHS for taking a closer look at the state's ongoing mental health reform efforts.
However, the letter (click here to read it) makes one factual assertion that I think is pretty much wrong:
Once Dorothea Dix Hospital closes, there will be no safety net statewide. These committees might conclude that time should be on the side of the patients and their families for a change, not on the side of politics.
If and when Dix closes (DHHS Sec. Dempsey Benton was circumspect when asked at his press conference earlier this month) it will be replaced by the new Central Regional Hospital.
You can argue whether the capacity at that new hospital is adequate. (And that IS a subject of much debate. In fact, the state has already acknowledged the need to keep "overflow" capacity open at its old John Umstead Hospital.) However to say that there will be "no safety net statewide" overstates the case.
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