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The General Assembly has a research arm called the Program Evaluation Division that looks into various aspects of state government and suggests places where there might be some improvement.

Two reports of interest came along today.

First up, the PED concludes North Carolina's alcohol control laws are antiquated and in need of an update.

What, just because there are 158 different local ABC boards, some of which compete directly with one another and at least a few of which lose money every year?

One of the more clearly understood recommendations of the PED was to give the state ABC Board more latitude to regulate the local boards. That way, stores that barely turn a profit can get some help or be consolidated in ways that make sense.

The report is at this link.

Related only in a tangential sort of way, the PED issued the second of three planned reports on the state's mental health system.

The bullet out of the meeting for me was that five mental health systems, including the one that operates in Rockingham County, have been told they need to improve or the state will take a major set of functions away.

Patients coming home from state mental hospitals only get seen by providers in their communities about 54 percent of the time on average. That's not good.

But the Rockingham, Alamance, Caswell system was among five systems where that performance was even worse that the state average.

According to Leza Wainwright, on the co-directors of the division, the state has told them they need to shape up or follow-up care responsibilities will be moved elsewhere.

The PED report itself talks about the need for better follow-up and tracking of patients coming out of state hospitals and the need for more critical care mental health beds in communities. If you've been following the ongoing problems with the state mental health system, neither recommendation will come as much of a surprise.

Click here for the report.