MENTAL HEALTH:North Carolina should not reduce the number of beds in its psychiatric hospitals until progress is made in improving local treatment options for the mentally ill, Republican gubernatorial candidate Fred Smith said Thursday. The state senator from Johnston County released a policy paper Thursday on the state's mental health care system. Smith argues that "improperly timed, poorly planned and failed implementation" of mental health reforms has hurt patients. In 2001, the state began implementing a plan to shift care of the mentally ill from large hospitals to community-based treatment centers run by private caregivers. But the level of local care has been uneven, and hospital admissions remain high.
Smith said the state should be responsible for providing long-term care. But the state needs more short-term psychiatric care in community hospitals and other crisis services to reduce demand on the state institutions, he said. "Building a strong system of community based mental health services is not going to happen as a result of increased and constantly changing state rules and regulations coupled with poorly developed and sometimes inadequate provider reimbursement policies," Smith said in the statement. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 2/14/08).
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