| WASHINGTON, March 1 /PRNewswire/
-- The United States gets a D grade in helping adults with serious mental
illnesses, according to the first state-by- state report on the nation's
mental healthcare system in more than 15 years. "Grading the States: A
Report on America's Health Care System for Serious Mental Illnesses," funded
by the Stanley Foundation, was released by the National Alliance on Mental
Illness (NAMI). The 230-page report,
including individual state narratives and scoring tables, is available
on-line at
http://www.nami.org/grades. The report calls on states to
make smarter investment choices through proven, cost-effective practices,
and to link taxpayer funding to performance and individual outcomes.
"Grades are more than report cards," said
NAMI executive director Michael J. Fitzpatrick. "They reflect standards that
help people recover, and choices being made by governors and legislatures
every day. States doing well in the report have developed a common vision
and political will to move their treatment systems forward."
For the first time, the report confirms in
detail what a presidential commission appointed by President George W. Bush
has called "a system in shambles" and what the Institute of Medicine of the
National Academy of Sciences recently called a "chasm" between promise and
practice. Grades were calculated by scoring 39 criteria, based in part on a
survey of state mental health agencies conducted in October-December 2005.
Only five states received grades in the B
range: Connecticut, Maine, Ohio, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.Eight states
received Fs: Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota,
and South Dakota.
"Treatment works, if you can get it, and if
states get it right," said NAMI medical director Ken Duckworth.
"Unfortunately, too many states are willing to risk or tolerate premature
deaths. Millions of adults with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major
depression, depend primarily on state public health systems for treatment
and support services.
Duckworth warned that Ds are unacceptable
and Cs cannot be considered a passing grade. "If you need heart surgery, you
don't want a surgeon who only got a C in medical school. The same principle
applies in helping people with mental illnesses."
"Too many states are behind the curve. They
are not keeping pace by moving toward a recovery-oriented health care
system, based on proven, cost-effective practices. They are selling
taxpayers short by settling for pieces of systems that are largely
obsolete."
The NAMI report makes several
recommendations:
-
Invest in proven, cost-effective practices (i.e, evidence-based practices)
-
Increase funding tied to performance and recovery
-
Improve data collection
-
Increase access to information
-
Involve consumers and families at all levels
-
Eliminate discrimination
Besides being the only large, populous state
to receive an F grade, Illinois ranked 46th in the nation in a "Consumer and
Family Test Drive" of information accessibility through the state mental
health agency's Web site and telephone system. In one instance, an Illinois
agency employee told a consumer: "No, I don't want to help you."
"Getting help means getting access to
information," Duckworth said. "When 40 states can't pass a pop quiz on
providing basic information to the people whom they are supposed to serve,
then the system is in trouble." States that received excellent "Test Drive"
scores were Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, South Carolina, Michigan and West
Virginia.
Fitzpatrick predicted the report will have
policy consequences. "Consumer and family advocates will use it as a tool
for change. Governors and legislators should use it as a check list. The
goal is to raise the level of awareness, dialogue and creative action," he
said.
The impact may extend to national debate.
"Iowa is a prime example. It gets an F overall. Eighty-nine out of ninety of
its counties are classified as rural, but the state lacks a strategy for
addressing distinctive rural needs. Tell that to presidential contenders in
2008 who plan on visiting the state." New Hampshire, he noted, was once
considered to have one of the best mental healthcare systems in the nation.
Today, it is one of 19 states that received a D.
Two states, Colorado and New York, declined
to participate in the survey and were graded U for unresponsive. Legislative
oversight committees in those states will be encouraged to seek answers to
the report's questions for themselves. |
Illinois
