Michele Forrest, following up on an email circulated by Billy Jones, who was following up on the mental health and jail article by Joe Killian:

Monarch, which contracted with Sandhills to provide mental health services in Greensboro, is not offering financial assistance with psych meds. Previously, Guilford Center offered meds at lower prices and provided free meds for homeless people (and maybe others, as well -- it was based on income). Our StreetWatch team is finding that some homeless people are now going without medicine for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD, depression and other mental illnesses that can result in them harming themselves or others, and/or engaging in other criminal behavior. This is a serious problem. From a cost/benefit perspective, it's less expensive to subsidize meds than to pay for jail beds. And it's inhumane to allow mentally ill people to suffer because they're poor.

Comments

[Lex]

Yeah, but inhumanity is the new black, so to speak.

[Joe Killian]

Have already been working on a follow-up that delves deeper and touches on this, Michele.

Quite separate from the situation at the jail (although obviously they're interrelated), the merger with Sandhills has definitely brought its own set of problems.

[Bill Bush]

Seems those who need psych meds would often be those most in need of assistance paying for them. I thought we were told that the new outpatient/community-based care model would be cheaper. How is a jail stay cheaper than a prescription?

[Joe Killian]

Bill:

When you hear government say "cheaper" always ask "How?"

The commissioners themselves are asking that question right now -- but they're asking it about the idea that it was going to be cheaper to take over management of the parks than to have the municipalities run them.

But to be fair, there were a number of commissioners who were uncomfortable with the Sandhills merger. They weren't really given any choice by Raleigh, but a number of them did express that they were -- and are -- unhappy with it.

[sal leone]

The City could help with medication cost. I been working on a program for mental health but got to get elected first. The City Council is to busy to deal with these issues anyway, they got a swiming pool to deal with, $5 Million dollars and the have GPAC, which already cost hundreds of thousands to the tax payer.

The issue at hand is do you want to pay to put them in jail or help them stay out of jail, which one is cheaper.

[Hartzman]

Could a motive be to cut off benefits to enable some to migrate to where meds are available?

Kind of like hedonistic consumer behavior, only different.

[Peggy Hickle]

In my experience, which is, granted, limited and focused on one specific area and the particular population there, they will not migrate to an area where meds are more readily available -- they will go without the meds. The homeless I know who need meds are where they are because it is what they know and there is a sense of safety in that.

[michele]

Joe, I look forward to your article. I've contacted both Monarch and Sandhills about the medication situation and I received a call back from someone at Sandhills who said she'd follow up and get back to me. I'm still waiting.