Virginia Group Pushes for More Access to Mental Health, Residential Treatment Centers

Access to mental health services, transition care, residential treatment centers and in-home care still is not available to youth including adoptees in the US. This article explains how a Virginia group is trying to change that.

“Voices for Virginia’s Children, which advocates for disadvantaged or vulnerable children, recently called on Gov. Bob McDonnell to include an additional $20 million in the next biennial budget to provide crisis services and expand access to psychiatric services. They also say better care coordination is needed for those children receiving Medicaid-paid services.

The extra funding would double the amount of mental health funds the state currently provides.

State tax dollars go to 40 Community Service Boards, which are local agencies that work with children and adults suffering from mental illness, substance abuse or intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Funding from the localities varies as much as the level of service the boards provide. The pots of funding from the state vary as well.

For some children, Medicaid covers their mental health services, while state Community Service Act dollars pay for mental health services for foster or special education children.

But not all children qualify for Medicaid or Community Service Act funds. And the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services spent about $22 million this year for children’s mental services.

No family can afford the fees for residential psychiatric treatment, which costs thousands of dollars a month, said Jan, the adoptive mother of the 15-year-old boy for whom she is seeking help.

And there is nothing in her county between a youth shelter, which houses at-risk youth and low-level juvenile delinquents, and residential treatment, Jan said.

“It doesn’t matter how much money you have. If the service isn’t available, you can’t purchase it,” said Mary Ann Bergeron, executive director of the Virginia Association of Community Services Boards, which advocates for services boards and behavioral health authorities.

Preventing expensive hospitalizations or crisis situations is the goal that will take more psychiatric doctors, medication and outpatient therapy, Bergeron said.

In May, Voices for Virginia’s Children released a report that found Virginia does not provide enough basic mental health services to keep children out of hospitals or residential treatment programs.

The report found that providing those basic services statewide would reduce the need for more expensive, long-term stays in privately run facilities or brief stays in the state’s psychiatric hospital for children in Staunton. All Community Services Boards provide emergency services and some case management, but they lack psychiatry and in-home services.”

Proactive Planning

“Proactive planning, such as what Voices is recommending, could have prevented the problems the state is facing to address the needs of adults with mental health conditions, said state Delegate John O’Bannon, R-Henrico, a doctor who serves on the Legislature’s joint commission on health care.

The state has been ordered by the U.S. Department of Justice to move many of the adults who suffer from developmental disorders from state-run institutions into houses and apartments with in-home services.

Lawmakers provided $60 million to begin that transition in 2012, but more money is needed to pay for home care and treatment to comply with the federal directive.

“Eventually the kids grow up,” O’Bannon said. “If you can identify these folks and get them good treatment early on in life, there is every reason to believe you’ll save money in the long run.”

Group Presses For More State Support For Children’s Mental Health Services
[Leesburg Today 6/21/11 by Amanda Iacone]

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