Another Bump In The Road To Affordable And Adequate Mental Health Care

Two updates this morning:

First, I had a great time at the NAMI meeting last night, and brought back A TON of information for you all about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Aside from some facts about OCD, I also have a list of famous people (living and dead, “celebrities” and not) who deal/dealt with OCD, including information about their “quirks.” (Yeah, I know, I’ve harped about the importance of not diagnosing celebrities; however, this isn’t diagnosing – it’s not even speculating. This OCD information is information these people have openly and publicly discussed.)

So, you have something to look forward to. “Look forward to,” because, I left my bag in the car and quite frankly just don’t feel like going outside to get it right now, ha!

Second, Mental Health America (MHA) sent an email yesterday about its latest news alert, Last Bush Budget Bashes Mental Health. Highlights include:

• “Mental Health America and its over 320 affiliates nationwide urge Congress to reject the Administration’s wrongheaded proposals; adopt a budget that places children and adults living with, or at risk of, mental health conditions among its priorities; and block proposed regulatory cuts that would further deny people the promise of recovery from mental illness.”
• The President’s budget proposes to further weaken and destabilize the Medicaid program, which currently funds over 50 percent of state and local spending on mental health [...] further shrink Medicaid support by $18 billion over five years, to include cutting more than $1 billion in case-management services, repealing special protections for children with special needs and Medicare beneficiaries at a ’savings’ of more than $2 billion, and slashing more than $5 billion in “streamlined” state Medicaid financing.”
• ” ‘The impact of such cuts on people and communities — in job loss, economic and personal hardship, school failure, disability, homelessness, and even suicide — cannot be overstated,’ said David Shern, Ph.D., president and CEO of Mental Health America.”
• “While the budget proposes deep, troubling cuts to Medicaid, even as Congress has blocked the implementation of proposed Medicaid regulations that would slash billions from rehabilitation services and school-programs, this budget would drastically shrink support for vital ‘discretionary’ mental health and human-services programs Congress has embraced as national priorities.”

Read the full article, and let me know how you feel about this.

Image source.