The State of North Carolina and local mental health officials have been implementing a host of new programs meant to help in the widespread battle against mental illness – in part as a result of an attempt to reduce homelessness, decrease violent events such as mass shootings and address other societal ills that may result from mental illness.
Just before Christmas this year, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced a new $20-million transportation program meant to help move patients without the involvement of law enforcement.
In the past, much of the transportation of mental patients in the state has been provided by law enforcement officers, and that’s been a time-consuming and inefficient way to do it.
Greensboro and Guilford County law enforcement officials have spoken frequently over the years about the problems created by using law enforcement officers for this purpose. They aren’t mental health experts; it often escalates the emotions of the mental patients; and the transportation process frequently means that an officer must devote hours to the process when the officer could be using that time for more traditional law enforcement work.
Under the new program, non-law enforcement-based transportation is meant “to provide a safe, therapeutic alternative for people already in mental health distress.”
The program, which was made possible by a North Carolina General Assembly initiative for “Non-Law Enforcement Transportation,” will focus on providing “trauma-informed transportation” for those in mental health crisis who need to be taken from hospital emergency rooms to residential treatment destinations.
NC Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley is very optimistic about the benefits of the program.
“People in crisis need health care, not handcuffs,” Kinsley said this week. “This program helps people experiencing a mental health crisis receive safe transportation to the inpatient care that they need.”
Currently, many of the state’s 100 counties rely on law enforcement to transport people experiencing a mental health crisis. This frequently involves the use of police vehicles, lights, sirens – and, in some cases, handcuffs — which state mental health officials say “can unintentionally turn a routine transfer into a traumatic experience.”
One aim of the new program is to “decriminalize and destigmatize” the process of seeking mental health care.
“We want people and families feeling comfortable reaching out for mental health crisis support when they need it,” said Kelly Crosbie, the director of the NCDHHS Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services. “Knowing a person may be transported in police custody can be a deterrent for people reaching out for the care that they need. This new program is part of our work to strengthen the North Carolina mental health crisis system, ensuring people in crisis can access support without fear or stigma.”
State mental health officials are currently working with local governments and their community mental health partners to make sure the mental patient transportation program will reduce the burden on law enforcement and will free up officers for their usual law enforcement duties.
The new program will initially be implemented in two regions of North Carolina. Those regions will be announced after a competitive request for proposal process, which has just opened up. It allows for qualified transportation vendors to apply for funding.
Transportation vendors can access and apply on the NC Department of Health and Human Services website.
The initiative is part of the state’s broader $835 million investment meant to transform North Carolina’s behavioral health system, which includes efforts to build a crisis response system, decrease emergency department boarding times and provide faster access to care for all North Carolinians in need of mental health treatment.
An excellent idea for lessening the burden of mental illness on law enforcement and hospitals. However, if done in the same atmosphere as mental health, this 20 million dollars will be split between unnecessary management and monitoring and actual service to the mental health patients. The majority of dollars spent on mental health treatment has always been spent on excessive management and monitoring rather than actual services provided to individuals with treatment needs. Time for a major change in mental health spending and even consideration of a medical model of treatment rather than psychological models which has not been successful in treatment. It is an antiquated system of treatment for many many years.
Why the special treatment for democrats?
LOL Wayne. Nice shot, well placed sir.
It’s about damn time for this! Sick people should not be treated like criminals because they asked for help.
Most of those being transported did not ask for help. The legal paper utilized to take them into custody is called an Involuntary Commitment and is usually taken out by a family member to force their loved one to get treatment. Cops have to serve those papers because the mental patients are being taken against their will which often leads to a violent encounter. Luckily, that usually just means them getting wrestled to the ground. Then they get taken to an initial evaluation facility, usually a regular hospital, and then they get transported to a long term care facility if the docs think their situation merits it. Looks like this system will only be for transporting the mental patients from one facility to another, not for taking them into initial custody. So much for that $20 million.
This service was provided by the Sheriff’s dept, who would hire “Deputies” (part time workers at lower wages to assist in this job). I had a retired friend who worked for wages for several years, until our new Sheriff was elected. Along with my friend, along with numerous others, lost their jobs – the are ALL white.
Look who is running the Sheriff’s Dept, City and Country govt, USPS, SS, etc. etc.
Oh, our public library has a comittee who decides what books to buy or keep, and what to purge. They are “burning books”. Books of collectable value have also “got gone”.
One more thing that would be cheaper, safer and more efficient if privatized. The government cake really needs to be reduced to a few vital crumbs. I retired from government, I’ve seen all I need to see to know the Libertarians are right on this one as well as tax policy. Oh my, how can someone who came from government say such a thing, people will lose their jobs? Well folks, that’s the way it is, get another job! We were all looking for one when we were hired. Most of us have held more than one job in our lives, and often times benefitted from the change.
Privatization would create those jobs, and likely better ones with a better work/life balance.
If you’re going to make these claims, please site your sources regarding library book burnings and committee selection. Public libraries typically do not keep items of “collectable value” just because of the book’s monetary worth. That’s usually the purview of Academic Libraries’ Special Collections. Public libraries usually focus on popular, high circulation items. Largely, the public determines what stays and goes, based on circulation statistics. Items get weeded based on condition as well. That’s why it’s called weeding, because you take out the dead (not circulating) or unhealthy (condition issues) inventory.
Have you been under a rock the past few decades? The bra burners and and low-T libtards will check out the books and not return them just to take them out of circulation. Our governments have made that even easier by eliminating fines and late fees. If we had paper cards like years gone by, you could actually see who checked out the same books before you. That card alone would tell its own story as to how that book was used. When the book disappeared, that too was telling.
You are right! Exactamundo!