Nearly 50 Percent Of Mental Health Services Recipients In Giffords' County Were Dropped In 2010

WASHINGTON -- In the past year, Pima County, Ariz., where Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others were shot Saturday, has seen more than 45 percent of its mental health services recipients forced off the public rolls, a service advocate told The Huffington Post.

The deep cuts in treatment were protested strongly at the time, with opponents warning that they would result in a spike in suicide attempts, public disturbances, hospitalizations and brushes with the police. But according to Clarke Romans, executive director for southern Arizona's branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the state government ignored requests for relief, citing the need to implement strict budget controls.

Now, in the wake of this weekend's horrific shootings, reports on the seemingly crazed mental state of the alleged shooter -- who was not, apparently, enrolled in any public treatment program -- is leading politicians, reporters and activists to take a fresh look at the funding of mental health care.

Arizona didn't always lag in this department. As Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic noted, "a 2009 survey by the National Association for the Mentally Ill reported that, statewide, mental health services had actually improved over the previous three years, to the point where the organization bumped Arizona's grade from a "D+" to a "C.""

But, as Romans told The Huffington Post, 2010 was a difficult year, particularly in Pima County. Last January, 3,000 Pima residents were taken off the public mental health system's enrollment because a diagnosis found they were not actively displaying symptoms of a serious mental illness. On July 1, another 3,800 county residents saw their coverage slashed because they did not fall below the federal poverty level. They were still allowed to get generic medications, but lost their case manager, their doctor and access to group therapy, as well as transportation and housing subsidies.

Just how big a chunk of the population in need of care did this constitute? There were 15,000 people on the rolls at the beginning of the year, Romans said, but that may be only a fraction of the population in need of help.

"These people are now turned away from services they may have had for years, and unfortunately the rate of suicide attempts hospitalizations and law-enforcement encounters have all gone up," said Romans.

"So they have cut the budget on paper, in Phoenix, but they now expect the local community, like Tucson, to increase the police, the emergency room, the response to suicide attempts, incarcerations and hospital stays," he added, noting that these services are among the most expensive a local government can provide. "It's madness."

A call to the governor's office to both confirm Romans' assessment of the situation and seek further comment was not immediately returned. But a Democratic state Senate aide offered a similarly dire view of Arizona's mental health facilities, predicting that things will get worse.

"We are facing a budget deficit of epic proportions and we know that there are more cuts coming, there is just no way around it," the aide said. "We have to be vigilant in the way those cuts are made."

The hope, among Romans and other mental-health services advocates, is that Saturday's tragedy will make it easier to fend off the budget scalpel. Though it seems alleged shooter Jared Loughner was not cut from a state program or receive any type of public treatment, it seems fair to say that he should have.

And while money may be tight, the avenues for getting patients into care -- at least in Arizona -- are surprisingly open. According to a Washington Post story on Monday:

Under Arizona law, any one of Jared Lee Loughner's classmates or teachers at Pima Community College so concerned about his increasingly bizarre behavior could have contacted local officials and asked that he be evaluated for mental illness and potentially committed for psychiatric treatment.

[SKIP]

Arizona has one of the most expansive mental health laws in the country, allowing any person, concerned about the mental state of another to petition local authorities to have the person evaluated if they are a danger to themselves or others, if they are unable to care for themselves, or if they appear to be mentally ill but may not know it.

In other states, stricter mental health laws require that people must show that they are an imminent danger to themselves or others before they can be involuntarily committed for psychiatric treatment.

Comments

[lw1]

04:13 AM on 02/08/2011

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/01/17/congress-passes-socialized-medicine-and-mandates-health-insurance-in-1798/

[JOHNSPEAKS]

10:35 AM on 02/03/2011

Think twice before you or your caregiver gets involved with the mental health industry because they use inhuman experimentation with antipsychotic drugs with horrendous side effects that cause a lifetime of pain and suffering and false hope of real recovery and then finally -Suicide-? The mental health professionals -Brain Wash- you and or your caregiver into accepting some or all of the following forms of torture? -Electtroshock Therapy- or -Deep Brain Stimulation- or -Deep Sleep Therapy- or -Conversion Therapy- and -Bilateral Cingulotomy- (Lobotomy) and other forms of -Psychosurgery- experimenting on human beings in the name of mental health recovery? (Please research the history of the mental health industry?)
If you can find a -Humanistic- mental health professional that uses -Limited Drug Therapy- and has real -Empathy- for the client then you have found a rare individual?
Human beings (Client's) that have mental disorders have one thing in common -Free Time- is their worst enemy, time to think about -Voices- in their head etc.? We need something that is pleasurable to do and the thinking process is also pleasurable as possible and -Stress Free- that uses as much -Free Time- as possible? For years I worked at one of the top mental health rehabilitation facilities in northern new jersey and we had an unofficial program of continuous kindness that meant we did many small acts of kindness all day long that lead to an -Atmosphere of Kindness- that reduced the severity of mental disorders and stopped all kinds of -Suicides-?

[Cynthia Newman]

05:29 PM on 01/18/2011

Having read what the newspapers & new reports have said about this young man, he would not have been committed in NJ - Doesn't appear he was known "to be a danger to himself or others" therefore not commitable & he didn't seem open to therapy either - even though it appears he is delusional, may have been obsessed with Gabby G & not in contact with reality - What will be done about gun control? & what are these type of guns used for anyway, other than bad things?
Why is the gun lobby so powerful, maybe they need mental status evaluations as well
Cynthia N. MSW, LCSW

[snapshot1940]

12:27 PM on 01/16/2011

Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, sent her buget proposal to the AZ legislatur­e calling for huge cuts in spending, mostly in education and health care for Arizonans currently on AHCCCs, Arizona's version of Medicade. She also sent a letter to officials in the Federal Government requesting exemption from Federal requiremen­ts to provide Medicade. Under her buget proposal, approximat­ely 280,000 adults would be cut off from aid, including 7 to 8,000 in need of mental health aid such as counseling and medication­s. These are not the mildly or even moderately disturbed but those seriously afflicted to the extent medication is all that keeps them from committing acts similiar to those of Jared Loughner. Also included in the proposal is the ban on transplant­s that may well result in the deaths of 98 Arizonans now in need of such transplant­s.
BY INSTITUTIN­G THESE CUTS, SHE WILL BE ABLE TO ALLOW LARGE BUSINESSES TO KEEP THE SUBSTANTIA­L TAX BREAKS THEY WERE GRANTED EARLIER!

[themainpoint]

06:01 AM on 01/15/2011

A country can't bail out banks that commit epic fraud, spend trillions on wars, subsidize industry and also take care of basics like this.

[Marci Metcalf Ruf]

04:44 PM on 01/14/2011

This is what needs to be addressed...not gun laws. In my opinion.

[ReigningMe]

10:11 PM on 01/13/2011

I live in AZ. When I was 13 I was diagnosed with severe bi-polar disorder, and at 29 diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. I didn't ask for the illnesses, nor did I do anything to deserve them. They have gotten worse throughout the years - I've attempted suicide, had public breakdowns, but no run ins with the law. I'm a good person who only wants to be a "normal" and functioning member of society, and I try harder than anyone can possible understand. I will never expect someone who does not go through what I do to ever fully understand what it is to be mentally ill. I am not irrational enough to not know that there is something wrong with me, so I live with that knowledge on my shoulders every day. It affects my relationships, my jobs, my family, and my physical health. Fantastic days can turn to suicide attempts in the blink of an eye with no warning. I have been turned down for AZ public healthcare three times in the past 10 months. In fact, AZ's public healthcare still intends to remove a few more thousand people due to budget cuts, so I don't imagine I'll be approved any time soon. I struggle with something terrible, and I need the help. There is nowhere else for me to turn. It is humiliating and heart wrenching to see how much hatred there is on this page for folks like me.

[binspired]

10:53 AM on 01/14/2011

Well I empathize.then I say MOVE out of Arizona cause it's obvious they are not into helping those less fortunate......Then I say it's time people face your DEMONS your utter disgust, fear and ignornace of mental illness................and pass health care bills to let professionals give the care they need to these peo9lethat will makeus safer than any gun will

[B2O2]

09:09 PM on 01/14/2011

Kudos to you, ReigningMe, for the hard work you put in every day taking ownership over your own brain chemistry. I have a family member with a mental illness, and believe me people, when you know someone with one, you realize that they really ARE trying their best (most of the time - like any of us, we aren't totally on our game 24/7). And it's absolutely true that you did nothing to deserve this, it's just an unfortunate extra burden you have in life. It's a shame Arizona - and all of our states - aren't getting more out in front on all this. But just like a diabetic needs insulin, someone with a diagnosed brain illness needs the best medication society has available so far. They should be able to get it.

Carry on bravely, RM.

[zaggy]

01:03 PM on 01/13/2011

Arizona needs to raise taxes and get the mental health programs back.

[binspired]

10:56 AM on 01/14/2011

Congress needs to maintain and improve the health care bill in place for America this is not an Arizona problem this is a US problem PASS the rest of Obama's health care for the nation and vote out the ones who want to remove it.

[jened]

01:08 AM on 01/13/2011

Arizona is a joke when it comes to mental health. Apparently Arizona is the hotbed for diagnosis of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, supposedly a one in a million disorder. Apparently there's a doc ( actually a psychologist )who likes to diagnose parents of autistic children with this "rare" disorder. Most at risk are parents of autistic kids who have used bio-medical treatments to help their child. If they improve, the docs can say, oh,there was never anything wrong, you made it up." Sad but true. Look up Arizona 5 autism. In fact in one family the husband and wife were accused of having the "rare" disorder.

[JePense]

07:36 PM on 01/12/2011

WOW!

[Ann Starke]

06:03 PM on 01/12/2011

why are there still 143 comments pending if the last post is hours old?

[Jennifer]

12:10 PM on 01/12/2011

Arizona is a 'retirement' state, and the retirees don't give a hoot about education or services that they don't need for themselves. The state budget is being gutted by old people that just want lower costs and don't care what the rest need.

[JePense]

07:38 PM on 01/12/2011

Please be careful labeling a group of people and then reading their minds to determine their motives and voting habits.

I know many retirees personally who support better education and services. Probably some don't, but it's not a given.

[jsgaetano]

11:32 AM on 01/12/2011

But hey, on the good side, they pay ten cents less in taxes per year!

[gavrielle]

11:19 AM on 01/12/2011

Where's that liberal safety net, Rush wanted to know. Well, there you have it. You and your conservative friends cut it up - just like you always do whenever you take power. Cut services for the poorest, dole out the largess to the richest. Good job, Rush. You couldn't have done better if you'd handed the kid the gun and pointed him in the right direction.

[Bedazio]

10:35 AM on 01/12/2011

Let's face it. The top 2% can get help for their own and the rest of us can suffer rather than raise taxes on the rich.

[janefi]

11:09 AM on 01/12/2011

Why do you want someone else to pay for you?

[Toonguy]

11:24 AM on 01/12/2011

Why do you want to wait for the next person to snap and start attacking people?

[gavrielle]

11:32 AM on 01/12/2011

So you think the mentally ill should be cut loose if they are poor? You do realize that most of his victims were fairly well off and most of them probably had medical coverage, don't you? My point is that poor people with mental illnesses are just as likely, if not more so, to attack the wealthy as they are the lower classes. When will YOU begin to understand that it isn't paying for someone else, it's paying to keep yourself and your family safe.

If a man is hungry, he doesn't have to get a job. He can get what he needs out of you. If a man isn't hungry, he's less likely to come for what you have - especially if he has the hope of eventually achieving what you have. A bit of sharing goes a long way when it comes to survival. Or would you prefer we go back to the days when roving bands of starving orphans waylaid passersby and no area of any city was ever considered entirely safe? Or maybe you'd like armed highwaymen attacking drivers along your suburban roads? Trust me, it won't be like in the romance novels, Janie.

That thin veneer of civilization we all wear can disappear in heartbeat. Consider it bribery if you like. Paying off the poor in small amounts, means they won't come and take everything you have - along with your life out of spite - when they realize they have nothing left to lose.