Editorial: The reforms need reform
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
By Staff
When the N.C. General Assembly implemented mental-health reform in 2001, it promised that North Carolinians who seek help from the mental health system would get better care, primarily through community-based support systems that would operate more efficiently and effectively than centralized psychiatric hospitals such as Dorothea Dix or Umstead Hospital. Several years later, here's where decentralization has brought us, according to a six-month investigation by the News & Observer of Raleigh: The state has wasted at least $400 million on a plan that has funneled critically needed care to private providers who operate with far too little oversight, sometimes using workers with little or no specialized training in working with the mentally ill. Among the more egregious examples cited in the investigative series were companies that charged more than $60 an hour for "services" performed by workers who had only a high school diploma. In some cases, the care they provided included taking clients to the movies or shopping or running errands for a parent. (more…)
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