Budget Platform
BACKGROUND: As Ohio’s mental health system crumbles, it is
consumers and families who pay the price. We must provide
sufficient funding for community-based care for Ohioans with
severe and persistent mental illness. Not only is this the
compassionate thing to do, it will save money by reducing the
use of expensive and inappropriate institutionalization such as
hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and jails. Recognizing that
there will be fewer resources available to meet the needs of
those with mental health disorders in the upcoming budget,
NAMI Ohio calls on Governor Elect John Kasich and the 129th
General Assembly to prioritize basic services for those with
severe and persistent mental illness. Join us – be a voice for
change.
PROBLEM: Ohio’s Medicaid
Program discriminates against
people with mental health
disorders because it does not
pay for mental health services
the way that it pays for physical
health services.
SOLUTION: Move the
responsibility for paying
Medicaid to the State where it
belongs so that local
communities can concentrate
their resources on those in
greatest need.
JUSTIFICATION:
• Today, state and local funds are used to pay the 40% Medicaid
match for mental health services, yet only state funds are
used to pay the 40% match for physical health services. The
remaining 60% is paid by the federal government.
• NAMI Ohio believes that the state should treat mental health
services the same way they treat physical health services, and
pay for the entire 40% match.
PROBLEM: Ohio is in violation of
the Mental Health Act of 1988.
When Lawmakers made the
decision to move individuals with
mental illness from the State’s
hospitals back to the community,
they promised to use the dollars
that were saved to support them in
the community. Unfortunately, that
is not what is happening.
SOLUTION: Do not cut the current
level of funding in the State’s
budget for the purchase of
community mental health services.
JUSTIFICATION:
• When the Mental Health Act of 1988 was passed, the state closed
six mental health institutions. The money used to fund these
hospitals was supposed to follow the clients back to the community
and be used to pay for treatment, housing, transportation and other
community support services. Over the years, these funds have
eroded.
• The state has an obligation to take care of those who otherwise
would be living in mental health hospitals today if they had not been
closed.
• Instead, the state has come to rely on our jails, prisons, hospitals,
nursing homes and homeless shelters to care for these individuals.
PROBLEM: Adults with severe
and persistent mental illness
cannot participate in their
recovery if they don’t have a
roof over their heads, food in
their stomachs, and someone
who cares that they get well.
Children with serious
emotional disturbance cannot
get well if they are torn apart
from their families and placed
into institutional care because
there are no services or
supports available to their
families in the community.
SOLUTION: Include language
in the state statute directing
local Boards to provide
critical services and supports
for adults and children with
chronic mental illness before
they can spend state or local
dollars on less critical
services.
JUSTIFICATION:
• Community Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health (ADAMH) Boards
are required by law to fund, manage, and evaluate community-based
mental health and substance abuse services. The federal, state, and local
governments fund the Boards and in turn the Boards are responsible for
ensuring that alcohol, drug addiction and/or mental health services are
available to those who need them, regardless of their ability to pay.
• In a time of scarce mental health resources at all three levels of
government, NAMI Ohio supports changing the law to prioritize the
population who receives services and supports by the local Board to
those with serious and persistent mental illness.
• In addition, NAMI Ohio believes that the scope of mental health services
should be prioritized to ensure that the most basic of needs are met (ex.
food, shelter, medication) are provided to the degree needed to remain
safely in the community BEFORE funds can be spent on other services.
• Families with a child with serious mental illness often come
unraveled trying to figure out where to get help and support for
their child and their family. Eventually, when the child’s behavior
becomes so disruptive and help is not provided, the child ends up
in a costly residential treatment facility or the juvenile justice
system.
• Local communities need to have the flexibility to respond to the
critical needs of families. Respite, door alarms, crisis
counselors…these are the types of things that families often need
to keep children with mental illness at home. Using levy dollars to
meet the individual needs of families, rather than embracing a one
size fits approach as we do currently, is the solution.
PROBLEM: Access to medication for those with
severe and persistent mental illness often means the
difference between life and death.
SOLUTION: Prohibit limits being placed on access to
mental health medications for those with severe and
persistent mental illness.
JUSTIFICATION:
• Over the past 20 years, powerful new medications have revolutionized
the treatment of mental illnesses, allowing people with even the most
serious disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, to live in
the community, maintain healthy relationships and pursue productive
lives.
• Because of the budget crisis facing Ohio, it is likely that efforts will be
undertaken to limit access to these life-changing, yet often expensive,
medications.
• Restrictive strategies, such as prior authorization or fail first policies,
may result in short term savings to the Medicaid program. However,
they will be more than offset by increased costs in hospitalizations,
incarceration, homelessness, loss of employment and out of home
care for children. The cost in human suffering is incalculable.
PROBLEM: Psychiatric
hospitalization in Ohio is not
adequate because there are
not enough beds; patients are
released before they are
stabilized; and patients are not
linked to community services
and supports upon release.
SOLUTION: Offer incentives to hospitals that accept Medicaid
patients to provide more psychiatric beds. Prohibit state
hospitals from releasing patients until they are stabilized.
Require that patients are linked to services and supports in the
community, including appropriate housing, prior to being
released.
JUSTIFICATION:
• The average length of stay for acute hospital care in a mental
health hospital in Ohio is less than two weeks. The average
length of time for most mental health medications to take
full effect is well over three weeks. Needless to say, many
people who are released from mental health hospitals are in
no better shape to live in the community than they were
when they were admitted to the hospital.
• Additionally, individuals who are released from the hospital
often are unable to return to the place they lived prior to
hospitalization for a variety of reasons. If hospitals cannot
readily find a suitable living arrangement, they send them
home to families who are unable and unprepared to manage
their illness, or they are released to homeless shelters or the
streets with no services or supports.
Help Spread the Word