Adams Wofford: More funds needed for mental health
Buried in the June 30 news article “7 things in the state budget you might have missed” was an important item.
The state gained $52 million through the sale of Dorothea Dix Hospital to the City of Raleigh. Of this amount, it will reinvest $18 million in state mental health.
In this way, Republicans plunder and divert scarce and valuable state resources for other ends.
Dorothea Dix and John Umstead Hospitals were closed. Central Regional Hospital was built half the size of either and ordered to serve the patients of both.
There are acutely mentally ill patients who sit for weeks in emergency rooms of local hospitals because there are no psychiatric beds available at state facilities. The private sector is not taking up the slack.
Members of the General Assembly apparently do not know and don’t seem to care that they don’t know. This is an appalling lack of responsibility by elected state officials.
Adams Wofford
Durham
This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Adams Wofford: More funds needed for mental health."