N.C. Mental health care suffers funding cut
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By: Kristen Cresante, Staff Writer
Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: City
Because of cuts in state reimbursement rates, about 1,500 mental health patients will be left without services this year.
"It's a disaster, obviously," said Dr. John Gilmore, a psychiatrist at UNC Hospitals and a leader of the N.C. Mental Health Vote organization, which advocates mental health legislation in the area.
"They've gone belly-up and left 1,500 patients in limbo, and it's not clear who's going to care for them at the end of the month."
The funding cut will cause Caring Family Network, a mental health assistance group, to pull out of Orange, Chatham and Person counties.
"CFN was a safety net for the community," said Judy Truitt, the area director of the Orange-Person-Chatham Area Program.
"They provided services to individuals that didn't have the insurance to cover things like medication, outpatient services and substance abuse."
CFN offered services to people with a state-provided funding source through the Orange-Person-Chatham agency, said Sean Schreiver, the CFN development director. In March those funds were cut by $10 an hour for community support.
"This made it hard to recruit and keep staff at that rate," Schreiver said. "But the bigger issue was that it diminished our ability to pay for the more expensive services, such as outpatient services, and we began to lose those services."
But CFN plans to work toward providing help during the transition brought about by the cut.
"We're hopeful that we can support a transition for our clients so that they can get their services from somewhere," Schreiver said.
The agency is viewing the transition period as an opportunity for expansion.
"I think this will be a complex transition for us because CFN was one of our largest providers," Truitt said. "But we see this as an opportunity to move forward."
Truitt said they have held a series of meetings and information sessions and are "pulling everything together in a planned and thoughtful way."
"It's a disaster, obviously," said Dr. John Gilmore, a psychiatrist at UNC Hospitals and a leader of the N.C. Mental Health Vote organization, which advocates mental health legislation in the area.
"They've gone belly-up and left 1,500 patients in limbo, and it's not clear who's going to care for them at the end of the month."
The funding cut will cause Caring Family Network, a mental health assistance group, to pull out of Orange, Chatham and Person counties.
"CFN was a safety net for the community," said Judy Truitt, the area director of the Orange-Person-Chatham Area Program.
"They provided services to individuals that didn't have the insurance to cover things like medication, outpatient services and substance abuse."
CFN offered services to people with a state-provided funding source through the Orange-Person-Chatham agency, said Sean Schreiver, the CFN development director. In March those funds were cut by $10 an hour for community support.
"This made it hard to recruit and keep staff at that rate," Schreiver said. "But the bigger issue was that it diminished our ability to pay for the more expensive services, such as outpatient services, and we began to lose those services."
But CFN plans to work toward providing help during the transition brought about by the cut.
"We're hopeful that we can support a transition for our clients so that they can get their services from somewhere," Schreiver said.
The agency is viewing the transition period as an opportunity for expansion.
"I think this will be a complex transition for us because CFN was one of our largest providers," Truitt said. "But we see this as an opportunity to move forward."
Truitt said they have held a series of meetings and information sessions and are "pulling everything together in a planned and thoughtful way."
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