Writing in the Boston Globe, James T. Brett and Marylou Sudders take Massachusetts to task for failing to provide community support services for people with mental illness. The authors chaired a state investigation of the Department of Mental Health’s adult psychiatric inpatient system. An excerpt:

Much of what we heard was troubling. The system was described as responsible for sentencing individuals to lifelong disability and creating an impoverished underclass through poverty, crisis-focused care, treatment that relies mainly on medication, and a lack of community supports.

… We urge Governor Patrick to hear above all else the voices of our citizens living with serious mental illness and their loved ones. The system is not working. Difficult fiscal times are not an excuse to warehouse people with mental illness or to dismantle critical community supports. Rather, it is an opportunity to ensure every precious dollar is spent in a manner that assists individuals to recover, live, and be served in the most appropriate setting possible. If as a society we believe that mental illnesses are as legitimate as physical illnesses, then it is time to stop treating people with mental illness as second-class citizens.

James T. Brett is president and CEO of the New England Council. Marylou Sudders is president and CEO of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and a former commissioner of the Department of Mental Health.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 10:33 am and is filed under budget, community services, mental health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.