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.