State officials may be weary of hearing complaints and feeling the heat from Disability Rights North Carolina, an advocacy group for, among other groups, mentally ill children. But Disability Rights is doing good work, and for the parents of children with mental disabilities, it ought to keep up the good fight.
Let us say from the beginning that state officials with the Department of Health and Human Services are well-intentioned and many are passionate about helping people. They are not disinterested bureaucrats. And yes, they are trying to work within a mental health care system that was nearly reformed into ruination by the much-ballyhooed reform movement now more than 10 years old.
The objective of that movement, also well-meaning, was to move many services from centralized institutions out into communities. But a series of reports by The News & Observer showed the system hopelessly flawed and rife with providers who were charging outsized fees when services were minimal.
DHHS under Gov. Beverly Perdue has tried to straighten the mess out, but many cracks remain in the foundation.
And as a Jan. 12 N&O story reported, children fall through those cracks according to Disability Rights, which cites some disturbing examples. There was the child, autistic, whose parents believed was given good care in a couple of facilities, but only for the relative short term. Now, after spending several weeks in an emergency room while the search went on for a proper facility to accept him, he is just home and sitting in his room.
There was the other child, involuntarily committed to Central Regional Hospital in Butner, who stayed there for two months. His mother says she found bruises on him from restraints. The disagreement continues.
These situations and others create great anxiety for parents, and perhaps worsen the conditions of children. And the long-term prospects are daunting, as some of these young people will likely require lifetime care of some kind.
State officials swear the situation will get better, as mental health care in North Carolina takes on more of a "managed care" look, with county mental health officials tracking patients and coordinating care with private providers.
It sounds promising, at least more promising than the status quo to be sure, but families who must deal with these issues are not just impatient people with lists of demands. They are desperate parents worried about the well-being and very survival of their children, not to mention the effects that a child with problems can have on the entire family structure.
This is a big deal, and as problems fester, it becomes bigger. State officials must continue to be diligent, and lawmakers need to take the issue seriously with more investment aimed at ensuring care that will cover all, leave no one behind and deliver results that families and these troubled children have a right to expect.
