Gov. Mike Easley today vowed to seek changes in the state's mental health system while placing blame on legislators and local management agencies for the failures of a 2001 reform effort.

In a news conference, the governor said he would urge legislators to transfer direct supervision back to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

He also called for a streamlined process to cut off private companies that have been charging exorbitant fees for providing support services to the mentally ill.

And he said he would propose a $40 million initiative to provide more beds in local psychiatric facilities and set up mobile crisis teams to travel the state. The idea would be to control admissions to the state's psychiatric hospitals.

Easley said he would submit the recommendations to legislators for action during the upcoming short session of the General Assembly.

The 2001 reform enacted by legislators "went too far too quickly," Easley said. He was particularly critical of measures he claimed eroded the power of the secretary of health and human services over the mental health system.

"Now Secretary [Dempsey] Benton has to go through an incredibly impossible, untenably complicated and time-consuming process" to rein in abusive providers of what is known as community support, Easley said.

"It is not workable. It is not something any manager can use... In short, we need to give the secretary of health and human services ... control over the mental health services process."

A recent series of reports by The News & Observer described hundreds of millions in wasted tax dollars, misdirected use of resources and sometimes fatal effects on dozen of patients.

For weeks, Easley has spurned requests from The N&O to interview him about problems with his administration's oversight of mental health reform.

At today's news conference Easley took one question each from three N&O reporters and chided them for attempting to ask more. The news conference lasted less than 39 minutes.

Easley said his administration vigorously opposed the 2001 plan, which privatized services and handed oversight to local boards. He said that lawmakers who claim that the Easley administration did not object to the reform have faulty memories.

When legislators were enacting reform, the DHHS secretary at the time, Carmen Hooker Odom, described the changes as a result of a collaboration between her and legislators.

Today, Easley said the department could have done a better job once the changes were under way by giving the local mental health offices more direction.

His proposals for improving the system centered on three areas:

- Giving the secretary of health and human services clear authority and the ability to act quickly to manage the mental health system. The 2001 legislation, he said, handed too much control to 25 county and regional mental health offices run by local boards. Easley maintained that there are too many local offices and that consolidation would save money.

- Improving standards for private companies that provide community support services to the mentally ill. He called for differential pay to the providers, depending on the level of services they provide. Some companies have charged the state's standard rate of $61 per hour for taking patients to the movies or watching them in school.

- Cutting unnecessary stays in psychiatric hospitals. The 2001 reform was meant to reduce hospitalizations, but instead the number of patients admitted has gone up, Easley said. More beds in local facilities and mobile teams of crisis workers to provide services locally will help reduce the number of people placed in the state's hospitals, he said.

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