Thurs. July 10, 2010
Writing as a private citizen -- opinions expressed are strictly of my own initiative. S/ -ft
Dear Mayor Johnson,
This morning at the Human Services Coordinating Council I attended my first meeting as a representative of the Sacramento County Mental Health Board.
During discussion of the General Plan and what Human Services elements should be represented I couldn't help but mention the fact that Sacramento's planned distribution of Affordable Housing is still undone and unfair at this hour to my knowledge.
I also made it clearly understood that we may need to start planning for Peer Run / Peer Operated Respites under the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA / Prop. 63) since I represent Older Adults and Veterans on the Sacramento County Mental Health Services Act Steering Committee and am somewhat familiar with the current County Budget deliberations and the (yet to come to fruition) INNOVATION component of the MHSA.
The current operation of the SCMHTC -- to my understanding -- has been operating at a shortfall of $18,000,000 per year simply because the county can't get MediCal repayment for units over 16 bed count. That's a celebration of "brick and mortar" we simply can't afford. The feds like Peer Run / Peer Operated Respites. Kern County's INNOVATION Plan is an excellent model of a Peer Run / Peer Operated Respite -- one we ought to strive to emulate as we work to dismantle the unsustainable SCMHTC Model. People have been trying to do this for at least 20 years. Now is the time to begin.
I also made it clear that we are sending our very best over to war torn areas and they are returning with skyrocketing rates of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) because we're protecting them better with new technology but human beings can't stand that kind of shock at the close range IEDs are catching our kids at. We must be ready for the "returning tsunami" of TBI and PTSD inflicted warriors coming home.
The Peer Respites are a wonderful way to help -- I made the point that cutting staff at the Veterans Service Office was a bad move at this time because they are the first line of defense for a warrior filing for veterans benefits using professional case management as opposed to volunteers helping from the veterans service organizations (with severely limited hours) if one goes out to Mather looking for help filing.
Veterans with a history of Serious Mental Illness are a natural to pair with Peer Run Respites for paid employment under the MHSA -- MHSA can enhance programs but can't supplant. That's illegal.
....and now. ...we come to Safe Ground.
Come on Mayor Johnson, it's time !!!
Sincerely,
Frank L. Topping, (in the Sacramento County Public Library)
Sacramento Veterans Community Support Network
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Now look, here’s the problem. Mental Health Services gets paid to have people in the system. The more people in the system the more they get paid. They don’t want people out of the system. But there is an answer they won’t like to get people out of the system.
We at the Citizens Commission on Human Rights have long advocated the BASICS. Many people with "mental" problems actually have a physical problem or deficiency causing the problem. A full physical is needed to determine if there is any undiagnosed illness or injury and a nutritional checkup to discover deficiencies. Then treatment of anything found followed by rest, nutrition and physical exercise would solve many of these problems that are being classified as "mental".
In 1982 the California Legislature passed a law, SB 929, to determine if 476 mental patients actually had a physical problem. The findings?
1. 39% had an active, important physical disease.
2. The mental health system had failed to detect 47.5% of these problems.
3. One in six had a physical disease that was related to the mental disorder.
4. The mental health system had failed to detect more than half of the physical diseases that were exacerbating a mental disorder.
The State even created a Manual to screen mental patients for physical diseases. And the Manual was created. What did the Mental Health System do with it? They ignored/buried it. It would cut into their funding!
With funding drying up now is the time to implement the Manual. For those “mental” patients with a physical problem they can be treated and released saving millions of dollars.
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