Editor's
Note
Call to action
Government
must adequately fund mental illness, retardation services
Beth Ulrich, Ed.D.,
RN, Texas Editor
September
18, 2000
Internal
and external equity funding for people with mental illness
and/or mental retardation in Texas is an important issue
for all Texans. With an increasing number of mental health
and mental retardation community centers having to dig into
carefully hoarded – and often small – reserve funds just to
meet payroll, a crisis looms.
The
Task Force on Equity of Resource Allocation, established
in November by Karen Hale, commissioner of the Texas Department
of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, has just submitted
its report. The task force has translated its extensive
work into a concise document containing more than enough
information to serve as both a wake-up call and a call to
action.
External
equity refers to Texas funding as compared to funding in
other states. The latest data for mental health community
services funding (1997) indicates a national average expenditure
of $26.98 per capita (per person per year). In Texas, funding
for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, the average per capita
expenditure was $14.61. As for mental retardation community
services funding, the latest national average (1998) per
capita expenditure was $67.99, compared to $42.04 for Texas.
Internal
equity, meaning funding across Texas, is not a new problem
but persists despite efforts to achieve parity. Mental health
community services expenditures across Texas range from
$11.15 to $28.27 per capita. Mental retardation funding
across Texas ranges from $19.08 to $142.84.
No group
recommends that the higher-funded areas across Texas be
brought down to the state average because the majority of
these areas still are funded below the national average.
Rather, the recommendation from the task force is to ask
the 77th Legislature (convening in January) to provide funding
for the next two years to bring all Texas areas to the state
average and then, during the next four years, increase overall
funding for all areas in Texas to the national average.
In Texas
today, thousands of people are on waiting lists for mental
health and mental retardation services and thousands more
are in need. In addition, evidence indicates an increased
need for mental health services in areas with high poverty
rates and for people without insurance.
According
to the task force report, "Without immediate attention
to the issue of underfunding, there will continue to be
a negative – and largely preventable – impact on society, resulting
in increased emergency health care utilization, increased
involvement in the criminal justice system, increased homelessness
and a general loss of human potential over the long term."
We need
to discuss these issues with our legislators and local officials
now, before they get caught up in the tsunami of the legislative
session.
Help
your elected officials understand the effect of these funding
deficiencies on access and care and ultimately on the people
they serve.
A little
education and discussion now will go a long way to ensure
that, in the heat of the session, they will make the right
decisions.
Read
the final report
