Gov. Mike Easley's proposed budget seeks to improve the state's troubled mental health system, shoring up local services and state hospital care. But Easley, legislators and others concerned about mental health services said still more needs to be done.

Easley proposed spending an additional $68 million for mental health. The money, which would come mostly from alcohol taxes, would pay for more than 430 jobs in state hospitals and local mental health offices.

The proposal addresses deficiencies that Dempsey Benton, head of the state Department of Health and Human Services, found in his review of the mental health system.

The budget includes $20.9 million for payments to community hospitals that agree to care for psychiatric patients, $6.8 million for 30 mobile crisis teams, and money for other local services such as walk-in clinics.

"We're certainly moving in the right direction," said Rep. Verla Insko, a Chapel Hill Democrat who helps lead a legislative committee on mental health.

Legislators have been looking to establish consistent local mental health crisis services for several years, with limited success. Some counties do not have agencies that can respond to emergencies, putting pressure on emergency rooms and state psychiatric hospitals.

Easley said the mental health system needs more than money. Local administrative costs should be cut, he said, and the DHHS chief should have more authority over local mental health offices, he said. Some ideas for restructuring mental health offices already have met resistance in the legislature.

"The budget's only half of what we're trying to do here," Easley said.

During the past four months, Benton has outlined plans for expanded local services supported by state money. He established advisory committees to consider issues such as work force development and hospital management.

Harold Carmel, former president of the N.C. Psychiatric Association, said it looks as though Benton has been listening to advice from his association and others. He called the budget "a good-faith effort to improve things."

The psychiatric association has pushed the state to re-establish local psychiatric services, which have been largely dismantled in the past seven years as private providers were handed more responsibility for community care.

All four state psychiatric hospitals have been in trouble with the federal government in the past year for dangerous conditions or failures to follow proper procedures. One hospital lost its federal funding because of its problems. The budget includes money for a five-member team to monitor hospitals and nine nurses to improve staff training and supervision.

The proposed budget would add 107 jobs to the state's three psychiatric hospitals, including seven psychiatrists, 74 nurses and 25 health care technicians.

The state plans to close Raleigh's Dorothea Dix hospital in a few months and move most patients to a new hospital in Butner. A section of Dix will stay open, with room for 60 patients. The budget includes money for about 174 Dix employees. Wake County will pay part of the cost of the Dix space, which officials anticipate will be open until 2011.

The budget proposes raises for health care technicians who expand their job skills and asks for money to recruit hospital employees.

The N.C. Public Service Workers Union has held protests around the state, saying that understaffing contributes to dangerous hospital conditions. The union recommended the state hire 240 more health care technicians at the psychiatric hospitals.

"There needs to be better wages for better retention, and the end to forced overtime," said union President Angaza Laughinghouse.