Mississippi Struggles With Mental Health Services Funding Cuts

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189772.php

Article Date: 25 May 2010 - 4:00 PDT

Jackson Clarion Ledger: "Lawmakers earlier this year vigorously fought Gov. Haley Barbour's proposal to close four state mental health hospitals and six crisis centers as a budget-saving measure. Now, nonprofit-run centers that offer front-line services for the mentally ill in some of the poorest communities across Mississippi could face closure." Revenues are down and there is little interest in raising taxes, but there is also no support for "shuttering facilities that house the mentally ill. So lawmakers picked their priorities, trimmed the budget by $500 million and closed session in late April by sending to the governor's desk a financial blueprint that he promptly signed. Among the losers are the state's 15 community mental health centers. ... The Board of Mental Health voted at its monthly meeting late last week to notify the centers that they must pay the Medicaid match debt owed or they no longer would be approved providers"

[gratuitous]

1. If it wasn't for the real, human toll this lunacy will exact

It would almost be worth it to joke about how this will yield a bumper crop of candidates for office in Mississippi. Unfortunately, what it really means is that there will be dozens of preventable deaths every year, unfathomable pain and heartbreak that could have been alleviated, and some dumbfuck politicians will congratulate each other over a job well done.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. I'll bet.

:D

[LuvNewcastle]

3. I go to a Mental Health Center and

I'm constantly afraid that I will go down there one day and it will be closed. There aren't too many psychiatrists around down here, and most of them charge unaffordable fees. We've lost a lot of teachers already amid other layoffs and now they're talking about closing the Mental Health Centers. This is what a state looks like with Republicans in charge.

[NC_Nurse]

4. That's what happens when your governor is a first-rate Asshole.

Things that don't mean "diddly" to Barbour:

Mental health
Oiled birds/beaches
Civil rights
the people of Mississippi, except for his rich buddies, of course...