{"id":1094,"date":"2019-09-04T20:00:07","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T03:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2019-09-04T20:00:07","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T03:00:07","slug":"do-you-really-mean-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1094","title":{"rendered":"Do You Really Mean It?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Idaho State Hospital North 1911<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Idaho State Hospital North today<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The national news amplifies our awareness of mass murders.\nMaybe Idahoans feel immune to the tragedy. But my little Idaho town has had two\nincidents of at least three people murdered in an event since I have lived here.\nMaybe that meets the criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can understand why we hear the reflexive reaction to\nmental health issues. The first perpetrator had demonstrated domestic violence;\nhis wife was his first victim before he shot a cop and a church sexton, wounded\na vigilante student before shooting himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew the second perpetrator from childhood. His behavior\nhad become more unbalanced; his family was deeply concerned and reached out to\nhim. But their concern couldn\u2019t stop him from killing his mother, his landlord\nand the manager of his favorite fast-food establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t see any clear connection, and I don\u2019t see how such rare,\nalbeit tragic events can give one a sense of direction. I suspect both\nperpetrators struggled with deep emotional or psychological conflict, even disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But few people with mental illness harm others. In fact, in\nIdaho if you just got shot and killed, it is 13 times more likely you just shot\nyourself than some else shot you. I\u2019m not sure how a \u201cgood guy with a gun\u201d is\ngoing to help you there. But maybe access to mental health services might.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do Idahoans have access to mental health services? Most\nmeasurements say we do poorly. A 2019 report from Mental Health America ranked\nIdaho 50th<\/sup> out of 51 in overall response to mental illness. Mental\nIllness Policy Org. ranked Idaho 48th<\/sup> in state funding for mental\nillness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Idaho legislature took a bold step 10 years ago and\nasked for and funded an assessment of how the state was addressing mental\nhealth needs. Further, they asked just what should we be doing. The independent\nevaluation suggested Idaho\u2019s system was fractured and dysfunctional. They made some\n35 recommendations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the credit of the Department of Health and Welfare, they asked for a follow up evaluation now ten years out<\/a>. It\u2019s nowhere near as gripping as the Mueller report, but it gives some good direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems Idaho has made some strong positive steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, we established Regional Behavioral Health Boards.\nThese give regional input to Boise about our varying needs from North to South\nto East. But they have not gone further to be funded for local or regional\ncontracting of services. Boise can\u2019t let loose of the purse strings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, the DHW established a managed care contract with a\nstate-wide provider (Optum) for behavioral health services to insure quality.\nIt has not been a smooth roll out, but this was a strong step. Of course,\nmaking sure the contractor is doing their job will be a job in itself. Remember\nhow contracted prisons went?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, Crisis Centers have been established in an attempt to\nprevent unnecessary incarceration or acute mental health crises. They were to\nreceive full start-up funding from the state for three years, but after they\nhad demonstrated their effectiveness to counties, more funding would come locally.\nThat will be a hard sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, through Millennium Fund grants, many local Recovery\nCenters have been started. They are peer support centers; they aim to help\nfolks in recovery from substance abuse. But Millennium Funding is just year by\nyear and I can see such support fading from the legislature. Many expect those\ndollars to fund Medicaid expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line comes down to funding. Do you really mean to\nhelp those struggling? Our founders told us to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Idaho Constitution, Article\nX Section 1.  STATE\nTO ESTABLISH AND SUPPORT INSTITUTIONS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Educational, reformatory, and penal institutions, and those for the\nbenefit of the insane, blind, deaf and dumb, and such other institutions as the\npublic good may require, shall be established and supported by the state\nin such manner as may be prescribed by law.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The national news amplifies our awareness of mass murders. Maybe Idahoans feel immune to the tragedy. But my little Idaho town has had two incidents of at least three people murdered in an event since I have lived here. Maybe … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1098,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions\/1098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}