www.projectdreamagain.com

www.mentalhealthministries.net

www.pathways2promise.org

www.faithnet.nami.org

www.annafoundation.org

www.mentalhealthchaplain.org

http://eminnews.org/index.htm

Families of persons with mental illnesses always live with the worry of what is going to happen to their family member when they are gone. That means how the public mental health system works is important to families. The question to be asked is how well is it working in North Carolina?

In May of this year I stopped my “ecological spiritual journey” on our farm in southeastern Kentucky and moved to the small town of Glen Alpine, North Carolina. I had moved to Kentucky from Broward County, Florida in March of 2004. I had spent from July 1991 to March 2004 in Broward County (2000 pop 1,623,018/2006 estimated pop 1,787,636) as a volunteer mental health consumer advocate. Before leaving North Carolina in 1991, I had done the same including being one of the folks that helped found the statewide consumer organization.

Upon my return to North Carolina I found a totally different playing field. Not just different players, but the rules of the game had been changed. Also, there was a big difference between trying to advocate North Carolina and in Florida.

If you go to a board meeting of the Mental Health Services of Catawba County which serves both Catawba and Burke (the county I live in) counties [combined 2006 estimated pop 243,838] the folks will not be handed any of the materials given out to the board members during the meeting. In Florida you would get copies because all the committees and boards I sat on understood we were dealing with public money.

I sent a package of information to Secretary Dempsey Benton of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and copied Michael Moseley, Director of the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services. The package was about a service idea that had cut down on the use of hospital beds and crisis services. Neither one have even bothered to reply. Why do public officials in this state not explore cost saving ideas that have been proven in other states in a system many say are both broke and broken?

Do families members have something to worry about? I am both a consumer of mental health services and a family member and I say Yes, because not only is the system not working well the powers in charge are not listening well either. That is a dangerous combination.

An example The News Herald Sunday December 2 Morganton - For the past 34 years, those caught in the grips of alcohol and substance abuse have had a safe haven here in Burke County.

It appears that is coming to an end.

The Foothills Area Authority has announced it will close the Detox Crisis Center near Chesterfield.

Facility Director David Mazaleski said there is little hope the center can be saved.

Health care reform appears to be the killer, Mazaleski said. With the privatization of mental health care, a treatment facility that focuses on the homeless, indigent and non-insured is a financial liability.

Still, even with the stark reality of capitalism in healthcare, emotions run high about the center's closing.

"I wish this program could be saved," said Randy Thornton, executive director of the Burke Council on Alcoholism. "I don't understand this reform any more than anyone else.

"It seems they're more interested in the appearance of programs rather than the substance of what programs are really accomplishing."

"It saved my life," said one former detox client. "I hate to see that center close. It did a lot of good for a lot of people. My life has changed completely since I took that first step toward recovery."

"If I had not found this place and come here I know for a fact I'd be dead," a current client said.

Current staff and clients seemed to have one overriding question Friday; "Where will they go?"

"That's a good question," Mazaleski said. No other facility in the area treats the clientele Detox Crisis does, he said.

You can reach me directly at [email protected]