Right goal, wrong way

Thank you for bringing attention to problems with our state's mental health, substance abuse and developmental disabilities system ("Mental block," editorial, Aug. 8). While you have highlighted a real problem, the increasing pressure on state-run hospitals is a symptom of a deeper disorder, not the primary problem.

The goal of reform -- decreasing the use of state hospitals through the development of effective, local, person-centered services that increase peoples' ability to realize their full potential in the communities of their choice -- is the right one. All North Carolinians should support this effort, if not because it is the moral thing to do, then because it is the fiscally responsible thing.

The primary problem has been a failure of leadership on the part of the Department of Health and Human Services to design and execute a high-functioning system. While our system is dismally underfunded, an infusion of dollars into a poorly designed system will not correct it. What we need is executive branch leadership. Maintaining hospital beds should be a stop-gap measure, not a long-term goal.

You mentioned that the governor hasn't been twiddling his thumbs. Do you know something we don't know?

Mark D. Sullivan

Executive Director, Mental Health Association in Orange County

Carrboro

Destination Dix

If the Dorothea Dix Hospital truly is shutting down in the near future, then it would be a mistake to do anything with the property other than preserve all of it for a destination park.

This property with its proximity to downtown Raleigh is a gem that should be treasured and preserved for future generations to enjoy. It should not be developed for residential or commercial purposes, nor should it be siphoned off for one state building after another. The City of Raleigh has many other locations that are well-suited for each of those purposes. In contrast, the Dix property is the only location in Raleigh where a destination park has the opportunity to thrive and ultimately be something special, something that we as a citizenry will be proud to call our own and to which visitors to the capital of our state will be eager to experience.

It's unfortunate that the legislature missed its opportunity this year to preserve all of the Dix property for a destination park. I hope that the Council of State makes better use of its chance to do something wonderful for the entire state of North Carolina.

Franklin Haignere

Raleigh

Others who call Dix home

To the citizens of Raleigh, Dorothea Dix is more than just a piece of land. To the mentally ill, the plants and animals -- the hawks, deer, possums and foxes -- it is their only home.

Do not ask he who is greedy or does not know. Ask who knows: the people who use this land. Ask me. Although I am only 11, I know the land, and she knows me. I am asking for the child who cannot walk yet, but soon will walk on this earth, hopefully, on the same soft ground I walk on.

I am asking for the child to have the same relationship with this land as I do. I've grown up in Boylan Heights, and I remember walking down cold streets in winter and crawling up the hills to sled, wading in the stream, biking in mid-summer and picking blackberries beside the road.

I still have sweet dreams of me and my dogs galloping across the big field chasing squirrels. Ask yourself where these animals will go if there were no trees, and if the ground was flooded with buildings. The trees, the beautiful trees, towering over everything. Where will they be? Ask yourself.

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