How is the Federal Government involved in providing mental health services?

The Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) awards grants to States and localities to promote quality, accessible community-based mental health delivery systems with a range of treatment and support services. This means that states are responsible for obtaining grants in order to provide mental health care. If I’m not mistaken, when you apply for something, your usually competing with others for a limited supply of what ever it is you are trying to achieve, in this case its money to fund mental health services. This must mean then that states are competing against each other for ability to provide mental health care for their citizens. Does this seem right? Shouldn’t all people have equal access to health care within the same nation? Why should it vary between states?

In April 2002, President Bush also established the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. The Commission is to conduct a comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system, including both the private and public sector providers, and advise the President on methods for improving the system. To learn more about the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, please visit the web site: www.mentalhealthcommission.gov.

According to www.mentalhealthcommission.gov the spending for 2002 in the department of Health and Human Services was $459.4 billion nationwide. But is all this money really going to the places where it’s needed most? This department consists of the following divisions:

Food and Drug Administration; Health Resources and Services Administration; Indian Health Service; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Institutes of Health; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Administration for Children and Families; Administration on Aging; Office of the Secretary; Office of the Inspector General; and Program Support Center.

As much money that is going to these health care divisions, people are still paying out of their own pockets just to stay covered by such divisions like medicare. It is my view that because governmental screw up are alot easier to hide then state screw ups, state screw ups are more visible.

Just this last Thursday (February 28th, 2008) the U.S. Department of health and human services released to the press information regarding the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) program identifying $371.5 million in improper medicare payments in three states. These payments have been collected from or repaid to health care providers and suppliers as part of a demonstration program using recovery audit contractors (RACs) in California, Florida and New York in 2007. Nearly $440 million has been collected since the program began in 2005.

According to http://www.whitehouse.gov the Health and Human Services (HHS) are putting their efforts mainly into Fighting Bioterrorism, the National Institutes of Health (Research), Community Health, and Medicare and Medicaid enhancing programs. The only mention that they give about mental illness is in correlation with drug abuse, and it is a know fact that not ALL mental illnesses are caused by drug abuse and it sickens me that the government lumps them together like that.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), in partnership with states and local communities, aids the nation’s effort to prevent and treat mental illness and substance abuse. The budget funds the treatment of mental illness and the prevention and treatment of substance abuse.

A recent evaluation of SAMHSA’s Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) found that the formula grant is effective in helping states expand community mental health services, alcohol and drug treatment, and support services for homeless individuals facing a serious mental illness. Building on this success, the budget includes additional funds for PATH to reach out to 163,000 homeless individuals to help them recover from mental illness and substance abuse, find housing, and gain meaningful employment.

Out of the entire spending for the HHS Department mental health is only referred to once in correlation with substance abuse.