By Dan Strellner / Guest Editorial
The recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut has again raised the issue of access to mental health services.
Since our state legislature adopted Senate File 69 in 1996 providing local property tax relief, but freezing the amount of funding counties could generate for mental health services, the state has grossly underfunded our mental health system.
We are now seeing the erosion of the preventive and safety net continuum of services that had been established to provide appropriate and affordable access to mental health services when individuals with mental illness need them. These services include early assessment, crisis intervention, hospitalization and residential treatment. Access to these services has been reduced and they are in danger of elimination due to mental health budget reductions.
As a result we are now in a period of great uncertainty for consumers as we move to a regional mental health system in Iowa. At the same time we are experiencing waiting lists for services, inpatient psychiatric units filled to capacity, hospital emergency rooms bloated with mental health patients needing services and the erosion of safety net services like emergency intervention and residential treatment because of funding reductions. There have been serious and significant reductions in mental health services in Linn County this fiscal year and there will be even more drastic reductions should our legislature choose not to provide necessary mental health funding during this session.
Mental health is a community and public health issue that requires us to address it in a comprehensive and systematic way with adequate funds to assure that individuals with mental illness can access the services they need when they need them. Our state legislature has a unique opportunity this year to undue our past lack of commitment to our mental health system by supporting the funding for the transition to a regional system, as promised in last year’s mental health re-design legislation.
Every day we read that the primary focus of this year’s legislative session will be on the reduction of corporate property taxes and increased funding for education. While both are certainly worthwhile endeavors, if we are serious about providing increased access to mental health services, shouldn’t we at least give this issue equal time?
Dan Strellner is president of Marion-based Abbe, Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides mental health and aging services. For more information, visit www.abbe.org.
