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Consumer Budget Forum
Trenton, NJ
March 13, 2003
The mental health
consumers who together form the Consumer Advocacy Partnership in New
Jersey wish to offer their support to the legislature as they
attempt to work with Governor McGreevey in balancing the state
budget. To that end, we offer firsthand testimony from many people
who manage mental illness as a part of their every day lives. Thank
you for the opportunity to tell our side of the story.
The consumers you’ll hear from today are affiliated with the
strongest consumer advocacy organizations in the state:
-
The Mental Health
Association in New Jersey
-
Collaborative Support
Programs in New Jersey
-
The Coalition of Mental
Health Consumer Organizations
-
The Consumer Provider
Association in New Jersey
Together we number in
the thousands, from all areas of the state.
Redirection II
New Jersey’s mental health consumers fully support Governor
McGreevey’s proposal to fund Redirection II in the Division of
Mental Health Services. This program, one of the most innovative in
the state’s history, has been the result of strong advocacy on our
part for many years in efforts to reform the state mental health
system from one in which consumers are institutionalized in state
hospitals to one where less expensive services are present in the
community. Our experience has been that in institutions, we rarely
recover. However in the community, with the right supports, we
thrive and recover with the help of family, friends, loved ones, and
our peers.
The Division of Mental Health Services Redirection II program has
focused significant resources toward supportive housing and other
community supports, which you’ll hear about today. These programs
have helped hundreds of consumers leave the hospital and return to
the “least restrictive setting,” where they have been able to
stabilize, socialize, return to work, recover, and reclaim their
lives.
Many of these same people have taken advantage of training programs
offered by our member organizations that have prepared them to
become mental health providers themselves. These consumer-providers
have become integral members of treatment teams and case management
teams, such as PACT and ICMS, which Redirection II funds also
support. Consumer-providers return to the mental health system with
the unique, firsthand knowledge of what it means to manage a mental
illness. As such, they provide compassionate, supportive care to
other consumers who are attempting to recover in the community.
The Consumer Advocacy Partnership urges you to retain Redirection
II at the current proposed funding level of $10 million and to
resist proposals that would apply those state funds elsewhere.
Children’s Initiative
The Consumer Advocacy Partnership is grateful to know that Governor
McGreevey’s proposed budget includes base funding of $3 million for
the Partnership for Children (formerly called the Children’s
Initiative). This initiative has been successfully implemented in
about one-third of the state’s counties, where it has helped
families with children exhibiting mental health symptoms to “wrap
services around” their children, providing the necessary
coordination of parents, providers, teachers, and case managers.
Other states view the Partnership for Children to be an exemplary
practice model of how to confront the reality of mental illness in
children and the funding currently in Governor McGreevey’s budget
proposal will allow the program to continue rolling out throughout
the state, while also continuing to allow the state to pull down
significant federal dollars.
Again, the Consumer Advocacy Partnership strongly urges you to
keep the $3million currently in the budget proposal. Please help us
to continue to build the foundation of care for children who show
signs of the illnesses that we have all suffered.
Medicaid Cost-Cutting
Mental health consumers who have Medicaid coverage and who are
attempting to recover in the community cannot afford some of the
cuts being proposed as ways to lower Medicaid costs. While some of
these cuts will go relatively unnoticed by some Medicaid recipients,
we believe that for those with mental illness, the cuts will create
overwhelming financial burdens.
As you’ll hear today,
mental health consumers in the community often exist on extremely
tight budgets, with little money leftover after paying for housing,
food, and clothing. We all know that our medications are an integral
part of our treatment, but when forced to choose between expensive
drugs and housing or food, many of us make the decision to try to
“go without them.” Invariably, this decision leads to
decompensation, destabilization, and many times, re-hospitalization.
Although we’re committed to our recovery, many times, the money
isn’t there to cover everything we need.
Much of the testimony
you’ll hear today will describe the utter lack of services for
mental health consumers in the community. That’s why Redirection II
is so important. But mental illnesses are chronic illness, which
means we sometimes need services that simply aren’t there.
When we first experience
symptoms of insomnia, anxiety, depression, or mania, we can often
manage those symptoms successfully with pharmacological treatment,
talk therapy, support groups, self-help centers, physical exercise,
diet, and other therapies. However, when those coping strategies
don’t work and we have no other services to turn to, emergency rooms
are often the only place to go.
During a psychiatric crisis, it may be difficult to ascertain
whether we’re experiencing a true emergency, under Medicaid’s
definition. We need to know that when no other services are
available, we have somewhere to go.
As you’ll hear today,
dental coverage for mental health consumers is not simply a
“nice-to-have.” The drugs we must take to manage our illnesses are
extremely powerful and affect the body’s ability to maintain healthy
teeth and gums.
Preferred Drug Lists (PDLs)
We are aware that some states have attempted to cut costs by placing
certain drugs on lists that the state prefers doctors to prescribe
because they seem to offer a cost savings. We are strongly opposed
to limiting a prescriber’s use of mental health drugs because what
works for one person often doesn’t work for another person.
For many of us, it has taken years of trial, error, symptoms, and
suffering to arrive at the right drug for our illness. Doctors and
Advanced Practice Nurses, who also have the authority to write
prescriptions for us, must have the widest possible range of options
to choose from when helping us control symptoms, often by combining
many drugs at once.
For More Information:
Consumer Advocacy Partnership
121 N. Broad Street
Second Floor
Trenton, NJ 08608
609-656-0110
609-656-8078 (fax)
email: mhatrenton@mhanj.org
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