
{"id":5213,"date":"2009-03-19T06:41:58","date_gmt":"2009-03-19T14:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5213"},"modified":"2009-03-19T06:42:14","modified_gmt":"2009-03-19T14:42:14","slug":"mental-health-advocates-say-consumer-voices-go-unheard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/03\/19\/mental-health-advocates-say-consumer-voices-go-unheard\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health advocates say consumer voices go unheard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>This story is a follow-up to a series about mental health care in North Carolina. To read the previous stories in this series, go to <a href=\"http:\/\/carrborocitizen.com\/main\/breakdown\/\">carrborocitizen.com\/main\/breakdown\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>By Taylor Sisk<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As mental health care advocates call on state leaders to listen to consumers of mental health services, a national organization says that the state has been woefully remiss in its communications with those consumers and their families.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, some 200 mental health advocacy organizations and individuals sent a petition to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Lanier Cansler, Gov. Beverly Perdue and legislators asking that the voices of those with mental illness and their family members be heard as the state works to repair our mental health care system.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Then last week, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) released its \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Grading the States\u00e2\u20ac\u009d report card, last issued in 2006. Fourteen states improved their grades since 2006; 12 states graded lower. North Carolina held steady with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153D.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>That \u00e2\u20ac\u0153D,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d though, according to the NAMI report, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even begin to convey the chaos that now pervades the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mental health care system.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nThree years ago, the report continues, NAMI warned that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reform initiatives were changing too much, too fast, resulting in an increasingly disorganized environment.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>The state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lowest grade by category, an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153F,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Consumer &#038; Family Empowerment,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which includes consumer and family access to essential information from the state, promotion of consumer-run programs and family and peer education and support.<br \/>\nBringing consumers to the table, said North Carolina Mental Hope executive director David Cornwell, would better assure a passing grade.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The petition <\/strong><br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For far too long, individuals with the most direct experience with services and most impacted by system failures have not been invited to have a voice in the solution,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cornwell said in a press release accompanying last month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s petition. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not only is this ignoring a rich resource for practical and cost-effective solutions, it is discrimination that reinforces the stigma of mental illness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Cornwell said that the seeds for the petition were planted a year ago when then state Health and Human Services Sec. Dempsey Benton asked 32 people to serve on three committees working to fix the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mental health services. Not one of those members, Cornwell said, was a mental health consumer or family member.<\/p>\n<p>The petition states that, given that one in four people is touched by mental illness, any discussion of mental health services in North Carolina should include input from those affected by mental illness and their family members.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to asking for at least 25 percent consumer and family member participation in groups serving those with mental illness, it calls for the fostering of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an attitude of inclusion and openness with respect to dealings with mental health issues and the mental health community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Cornwell said that ignoring the voices of consumers is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153basically endorsing the mindset that has been the status quo in North Carolina, a status quo that helps ingrain discrimination and reinforces existing prejudices. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mindset that seems to say to consumers and family members that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not wise enough or experienced enough to sit at the table to help solve these problems, which is far from the case.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>The prognosis<\/strong><br \/>\nIn its recent report, NAMI said of North Carolina, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fortunately, a change in governors in 2009 provides broader hope for the future.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Both Cansler and Perdue have expressed the desire to be more open to consumer input. But Cornwell said that no response to the petition had yet been received from any state or elected official.<\/p>\n<p>And with the budget shortfall the state is facing \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and despite Cansler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s statement that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mental health reform is over. Now we have to focus on building the system.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c no one is optimistic that a dramatic new course is immediately forthcoming.<br \/>\nAt a public listening session held last month by a mental health task force convened by Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy, Rep. Verla Insko, co-chair of the joint legislative oversight committee on mental health, said that she believes that once the budget is passed not only will the stimulus money targeted for mental health care services be used to fill holes elsewhere but that an additional $400-500 million of the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Medicaid money could be lost.<\/p>\n<p>In response to those comments, Bebe Smith, director of outpatient services for UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program and co-director of the Center of Excellence in Community Mental Health in Carrboro, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If there are funding cuts to an already underfunded system, bad things will happen to vulnerable people. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The current system is not one we can rely on, particularly in this economic climate.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Still, consumer advocates are hoping for the best.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I certainly think advocates in North Carolina have high hopes for Secretary Cansler,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cornwell said last week, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and his actions and statements so far seem to justify those hopes. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And while it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the best interest of everyone, including the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taxpayers, to include mental health clients and their family members in working on solutions to the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mental health woes, it would create a tremendous amount of good will for him to just say so.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This story is a follow-up to a series about mental health care in North Carolina. To read the previous stories in this series, go to carrborocitizen.com\/main\/breakdown\/ By Taylor Sisk Staff Writer As mental health care advocates call on state leaders to listen to consumers of mental health services, a national organization says that the state&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5213","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=5213"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5215,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5213\/revisions\/5215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}