RALEIGH (AP) — Mental-health patients in North Carolina are struggling to find serious care after 2001 reforms moved the focus of treatment from mental hospitals to community programs now dominated by a basic service that lacks professional services.

The community support program, dominated by private companies who often employ workers with only high school diplomas, is consuming 90 percent of community mental-health spending, the News & Observer of Raleigh reported Thursday. Only 4.9 percent of community spending has been going to intensive outpatient therapy aimed at those with the most serious needs.

That system is driving those with serious conditions to frequent the state mental health hospitals that nearly everybody wanted to close or reduce in size. But while short stays in state hospitals help stabilize patients in crisis, they have less therapeutic value. (more…)