Raleigh, NC –March 4, 2008 - Last week’s series in the Raleigh News and Observer provided a disturbing epilogue to what mental health experts in North Carolina have known for quite some time:  mental health reform has failed with tragic results.  The questions we must all consider now are: how did it come to this; and what should we do to address this astonishing failure of public policy?

To recap the highlights of this sad story, the 2001 reform legislation immediately stripped the treatment resources from the area mental health programs without ensuring that a new system was in place to provide care.  To make matters worse, provisions for making the community-care process work and for making the Local Management Entities (LMEs)  a viable and efficient mechanism for managing local care either were not worked out or were poorly conceived.  So without a process to qualify local providers, no apparent recurring audit plan, and suspect service descriptions, DHHS officials opened the state treasury to private providers and the gold-rush to deliver suspect “community support services” was on.

“There are only two possible explanations for this debacle,” Justice Orr asserted.  “Either this is a case of stunning bureaucratic incompetence and a poorly conceived plan or some inside interests worked a deal to position themselves to reap the benefits of mental health privatization. In reality, it’s probably a combination of the both and only new leadership in the governor’s office will address the failure of this reform. As for the question of how nearly a half billion taxpayer dollars have been wasted,” Orr continued, “I call upon the Attorney General of NC and the US Attorney for the Eastern District of NC to investigate the exploitation of the so-called mental health reform.”

“It is inconceivable that our leaders created and implemented a system that failed miserably to deliver adequate care and yet clearly benefited some entities with huge financial rewards,” said Orr.  “The public has a right to know who lobbied for and participated in the creation of this system both within the General Assembly and the agencies involved, as well as exactly how much public money has been wasted, and who benefited.”

Orr concluded that “while it is critical that we get to the truth on how we got into this mess, it is more important that we develop and implement a plan to get us out of it. Today I am releasing a plan to rescue mental health reform in North Carolina. The attached plan is a product of the experience and thinking of many of our committed mental health professionals and advocates and outlines a vision and specific proposals that I believe will get our mental health delivery system back on track.”

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 Mental Health Care Proposal