
{"id":377,"date":"2007-06-07T07:01:18","date_gmt":"2007-06-07T15:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/06\/07\/mental-health-care-reductions-take-effect\/"},"modified":"2007-06-07T07:05:07","modified_gmt":"2007-06-07T15:05:07","slug":"mental-health-care-reductions-take-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/06\/07\/mental-health-care-reductions-take-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health care reductions take effect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Taylor Sisk<br \/>\nStaff Writer<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As planned cutbacks came down this week, the local provider for mental health services defended the move as the only course possible in the wake of lower state funding.<br \/>\nOn Monday, the Caring Family Network (CFN) put into effect changes to mental health services it offers in its Hillsborough offices. While those offices will continue to be open five days a week, walk-in services will only be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays.<br \/>\nAlong with the changes, CFN also said seven full-time employees would be let go, including those providing community support services, which are designed to help those in need of clinical services  better integrate into their local communities \u00e2\u20ac\u201d assisting them, for example, in securing physical health services and applying for jobs. The network also said it had terminated the contracts of a psychiatrist and a therapist.<br \/>\nState Rep. Verla Insko, a longtime proponent of mental health reform, said the cuts will hurt.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They certainly are not in the best interests of the consumers \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and the system should put them first.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nBut CFN representatives say that the state mental health care system, as administered by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, has forced them to make the changes.<br \/>\nAt a recent public forum in Chapel Hill, CFN regulatory systems director Marcia Lewis said that while the agency had already been finding it difficult to stay afloat, recent reductions to it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funding from the state meant CFN \u00e2\u20ac\u0153just couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get by\u00e2\u20ac\u009d without reducing the services it provided.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<strong> A greater challenge than ever before<\/strong><br \/>\nCFN is a private agency that contracts to provide mental health and substance abuse services through the OPC Area Program. OPC is a local government agency tasked with providing oversight and management of mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse services in Orange, Person and Chatham counties. CFN announced in May that due in large measure to the recent rate cut by the state for community support services, it would be restructuring its services. The Medicaid rate reimbursed to organizations providing community support previously had been $60.96 an hour and was reduced to $51.28.<br \/>\nAt an OPC-sponsored mental health public forum\u00e2\u20ac\u009d held May 22 at Sunrise Church, CFN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s local program director Jim Martin provided an overview of services that would be reduced \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including both child and adult psychiatric services \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and acknowledged that the changes would have a real impact on a number of current and potential clients. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean to say this is not a big deal,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is a big deal.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nCFN has been serving approximately 1,000 clients in Orange County.<br \/>\nAt the forum, Truitt said the system is strained.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Public mental health is facing a greater challenge than we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever faced in the life of the system,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<br \/>\nTruitt outlined the major issues facing mental health services in North Carolina today, including the amount of funding mental health services receive from the state legislature and a general shortage of crisis services. She also expressed concern with changes taking place at the state level with the departure last month of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The system may seem chaotic,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Truitt. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is chaotic.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Concern with how decisions are made<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen Hooker Odom announced the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rate reduction for community support services, she said that, based on an audit of 167 mental health service providers in the state, it had been determined the rate was too high.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The original rate was set up with the idea that a quarter of the services would be provided by professional staff with master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s degrees,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hooker Odom said at the time. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Certainly, with those 167 providers, who represented 16 percent of the [community support] providers, that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happening.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She said that those 167 providers \u00e2\u20ac\u0153were billing for services that were almost totally provided by people with high school degrees or less.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concern with how decisions are being made in Raleigh,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Truitt said at the OPC public forum when explaining the rate change. She said she believed the change was carried out without allowing for adequate participation from all stakeholders.<br \/>\nRep. Insko echoes CFN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assertion that the reduction in the agency\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s services in Orange County are largely due to the rate change \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a change she says she opposed because it was made without having conducted proper monitoring of every provider offering services on behalf of the state.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The state wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t monitoring [providers] closely enough to see they had a problem,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Insko said.<br \/>\nShort of such comprehensive oversight, Insko feels the rate reduction was premature \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and she believes its consequences will be profound.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There will be people who will lose services,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and who will end up in emergency rooms or in creating dysfunctional situations for their families\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not serving those we need to serve.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nSate Sen. Ellie Kinnaird said she believes mismanagement at the top of the Department of Health and Human Services contributed to legislators\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 reluctance to send more money into the programs.<br \/>\nKinnaird said much of the blame rests with Hooker Odom.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I really lay this at her feet,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kinnaird said.<br \/>\nAs for funding in the state budget currently being hashed out, while acknowledging that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not enough money allocated for mental health services, Insko added: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to spend money properly till we make some structural changes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c meaning, she said, putting more control into local hands.<br \/>\nShe pointed out that such community-based initiatives are being proposed in the budget, including House Bill 691 to build community infrastructure for mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse services, of which she is primary sponsor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Taylor Sisk Staff Writer As planned cutbacks came down this week, the local provider for mental health services defended the move as the only course possible in the wake of lower state funding. On Monday, the Caring Family Network (CFN) put into effect changes to mental health services it offers in its Hillsborough offices&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}