WV GETS "F" FOR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES - Critical Lack Of Service In Rural Areas

(03/16/2009)
By Bob Weaver

A national group has joined the West Virginia Behavioral Health Providers Association in declaring the state's mental health services is in a shambles, giving the state an "F."

A report released last Wednesday by the National Alliance on Mental Health called the state's redesign of its Medicaid mental health program "horrendous."

The report said there is a critical lack of services in the state's small towns and rural areas and overcrowding at the two state-run acute care psychiatric hospitals.

Bureau for Medical Services Commissioner Marsha K. Morris says the report rehashed old, refuted arguments about the state's new Mountain Health Choices program.

West Virginia mental health officials disagreed with the group's report.

The WV Behavioral Health Providers Association says the state system has "deteriorated to the point of a serious crisis."

They cite increased suicides and the severe mentally ill ending up in jail, saying 37,000 individuals in West Virginia's regional jails had sought treatment for mental illness in 2004.

About 90% of all jail inmates are suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction, with a public perception that treatment is generally available, when it is not.

The number of homeless mentally ill has increased 300%, most living day to day in sub-standard living conditions.

"It has been widely reported that community-based mental programs have crumbled," reported the Association, with at least four community services in bankruptcy and others hanging on by downsizing services.

The group says there is a major problem with overcrowding in the state's inpatient facilities, with the West Virginia Bureau for Mental Health saying commitments to the state run hospitals increased 219% from 2001 to 2005.

The Association says about $100 million in funding reduction has happened in the past ten years.

There is a story of "success" in a community mental health center in Wheeling, which reports say is operated by strict reimbursement - "No money, no service""

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