NC Governor's race : dumbstruck candidates, Perdue and McCrory w/ Mental Health Association, who makes money off of ACT teams, squawking in background
It would be nice if mental health advocates, mental health providers, and mental health consumers could work together in order to create a blueprint for services rather than one constituency playing behind the scenes----either by sitting on their hands or by grabbing the microphone----in order to provide an orderly continuum of services depending on the needs of the client. It would have been nice if MHA had vigorously defended the appropriateness of Community Support Services which to my mind, keeps clients from accelerating into the ACT, more intensive, home-based services. Now that ACT is being cut, MHA is all over the matter. And below is documented from February 2007 when they jumped on the bandwagon to diminish the funding for CSS which went un-monitored by NC DHHS.
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Neither of the major party candidates has anything useful to say about NC Mental Health Reform. Its not as if there is not an enormous amount of information out there. I personally contacted McCrory's campaign to ask for an audience. Never granted. No contact; no interest.
I've been documenting mental health reform difficulties for over a year now, since Hooker Odom decided to use her 'bad apples' argument, which Easley quickly picked up, and the news services ran with as re: Community Support Services 'taking their clients swimming and to the movies.'
Perdue keeps squawking about how NC Mental Health REform was 'too much, too quickly' which cannot be proven; there is nothing to compare what took place to.
What this provider does know is that Easley keeping Carmen Hooker Odom in place for 7years sank the ship as evidenced by her memos to mental health providers, disorganized, each one contradicting the one before----with she moonlighting at her new gig in NYC.
There is no indication that Perdue is attempting to distance herself from Easley's decisions. And so this far left Dem is going to vote for the Republican in order to make a point.
And the Mental Health Association, MHA, headed up by John Tote, who seems to have some profit making ability as associated w/ management of ACT teams across NC (I did not know this until Lynn Bonner's article in the Raleigh News & Observer yesterdaY:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1199997.html
"John Tote, executive director of the Mental Health Association in North Carolina, called the ACT team cut "completely ludicrous." Tote said his organization has the most ACT teams in the state, serving more than 1,000 clients."; this means that Tote is paid as associated w/ ACT teams, or I'll eat my hat).
Moreover, it appears that MHA has been losing money re: CSS (BTW, the clubhouse model is a good and useful model): from a February 2007 news article from the Raleigh News & Observer:
http://mentalhopenews.blogspot.com/2007/02/community-mental-health-firms-face.html
".....But John Tote, executive director of the Mental Health Association in North Carolina, a private nonprofit organization that provides mental health services, said companies that offer community support are keeping patients and the government payments for themselves, rather than referring them to others that can offer more appropriate treatment.
"It's a monetary issue," he said.
Tote's group operates "clubhouses" where people with mental illnesses get job training, take classes and get help learning to live outside hospitals.
Some of the companies offering community support don't know much about clubhouses and don't recommend them for clients, he said.
Attendance at a clubhouse in Wilmington dropped in the past year, which Tote attributes to people not moving among the options beyond step one...."
From WRAL: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3451179/
Patient advocates: N.C.'s mental health system needs fixing
Posted: Aug 31, 2008
"...That would not be true if the gubernatorial candidates are already investigating and discussing the problems the mental health system faces. Advocates say they have not heard any specific plans from either candidate so far, however...."
********************************
Neither of the major party candidates has anything useful to say about NC Mental Health Reform. Its not as if there is not an enormous amount of information out there. I personally contacted McCrory's campaign to ask for an audience. Never granted. No contact; no interest.
I've been documenting mental health reform difficulties for over a year now, since Hooker Odom decided to use her 'bad apples' argument, which Easley quickly picked up, and the news services ran with as re: Community Support Services 'taking their clients swimming and to the movies.'
Perdue keeps squawking about how NC Mental Health REform was 'too much, too quickly' which cannot be proven; there is nothing to compare what took place to.
What this provider does know is that Easley keeping Carmen Hooker Odom in place for 7years sank the ship as evidenced by her memos to mental health providers, disorganized, each one contradicting the one before----with she moonlighting at her new gig in NYC.
There is no indication that Perdue is attempting to distance herself from Easley's decisions. And so this far left Dem is going to vote for the Republican in order to make a point.
And the Mental Health Association, MHA, headed up by John Tote, who seems to have some profit making ability as associated w/ management of ACT teams across NC (I did not know this until Lynn Bonner's article in the Raleigh News & Observer yesterdaY:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1199997.html
"John Tote, executive director of the Mental Health Association in North Carolina, called the ACT team cut "completely ludicrous." Tote said his organization has the most ACT teams in the state, serving more than 1,000 clients."; this means that Tote is paid as associated w/ ACT teams, or I'll eat my hat).
Moreover, it appears that MHA has been losing money re: CSS (BTW, the clubhouse model is a good and useful model): from a February 2007 news article from the Raleigh News & Observer:
http://mentalhopenews.blogspot.com/2007/02/community-mental-health-firms-face.html
".....But John Tote, executive director of the Mental Health Association in North Carolina, a private nonprofit organization that provides mental health services, said companies that offer community support are keeping patients and the government payments for themselves, rather than referring them to others that can offer more appropriate treatment.
"It's a monetary issue," he said.
Tote's group operates "clubhouses" where people with mental illnesses get job training, take classes and get help learning to live outside hospitals.
Some of the companies offering community support don't know much about clubhouses and don't recommend them for clients, he said.
Attendance at a clubhouse in Wilmington dropped in the past year, which Tote attributes to people not moving among the options beyond step one...."
From WRAL: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3451179/
Patient advocates: N.C.'s mental health system needs fixing
Posted: Aug 31, 2008
"...That would not be true if the gubernatorial candidates are already investigating and discussing the problems the mental health system faces. Advocates say they have not heard any specific plans from either candidate so far, however...."
posted by Marsha V. Hammond, PhD at 2:25 PM
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