| Last year, our state was one of six states in the nation to receive a "B" in the National Alliance on Mental Illness's Grading the States' report. (Until recently, I was the executive director of NAMI's Oklahoma chapter, I'm now with Gateway to Prevention and Recovery.) We were the only state to improve from a D in 2006 to a B in 2009. No other state improved two grades since the Grading the States' Report started.
When I had the honor of presenting this grade to the Legislature and to the Governor's Transformation Advisory Board, I was clear that our state was at the tipping point of making this grade a reality. Oklahoma has the opportunity to be the first state in our nation deserving of an "A" if only we have the commitment and support to fund new programs and sustain others we know to be the best for our clients.
Mental Illness and Addiction strikes one in five individuals in our state. We pay dearly for individuals left untreated. In addition to many other examples, our tax dollars fund Medicaid for emergency room visits, the Department of Corrections if these individuals end up in the criminal justice system, the foster care system if these illnesses separate parents from their children, and most importantly, in loss of life and quality of life for our state's citizens.
Due to budget constraints the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services has closed the doors of treatment facilities that provided critical services to our citizens. Our addiction and co-occurring professionals are now less able to be reimbursed for services that cannot be reimbursed through Medicaid. Additionally, many valuable employees are losing their employment in direct services.
Our mental health system received a "B" in part due to the services we already had in place and also due to strategic plans to expand excellent services in innovative ways. We are now watching our service system being mortally dismantled. Those in need will now have fewer locations and fewer professionals to serve life and death crises, much less the necessary preventive services that turn our system from reactive to proactive.
I am aware that our legislators must make tough decisions in hard economic times; however, this is not one of those. It is not tough to choose life over death. It is not tough to choose how to spend tax dollars in an effective and efficient manner. It is not tough to choose to follow through on a health care system that has finally put Oklahoma on the map. |
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