foolmenot.comI love government bureaucracy stories; here’s a beauty…
Although they encourage a love/hate relationship with both Democrats and Republicans, government bureaucracies seem to love Democrats the most - or, maybe it’s the Democrats who love government bureaucracies the most… Ummm, I guess it doesn’t make any difference; anyway… You probably want to know why I’m saying that; it’s because to a Democrat, a government bureaucracy is just another voting block- but that’s an editorial for a different day…
The “Ann Arbor News”, in the article below, names one such typical [Michigan] government bureaucracy who like all others seems to be just another tax dollar dumping site; The Michigan State Mental Health System… And what is the story this time? Same story; tax money is being wasted again… To buy votes!
How does the Granholm Administration respond to these charges by the Ann Arbor News? By defending the non-productive bureaucracy and giving them more money to waste! Why? Because it’s a Democratic voting block and what is more important to Governor Granholm right now than to publicly present enough of a positive perception to get re-elected…
So-- she says they’re doing a great job; she gives them more taxpayer money to give the public the impression it’s true, and then adds her “great job” comment to her track record of accomplishments.
But what she doesn’t know is that taxpayers keeping track of her record too- it’s the same list but with a different title; our title is, “Liar, Liar. Pants on fire”!
Full article follows...
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Bureaucracy is doing just fine in Lansing.
We wish could say the same for the reform of mental health services.
The Ann Arbor News Lansing Bureau has reported that only six of the 71 proposals made by a commission recommending fixes to the state's mental health system have been implemented. Appointed in 2003, commission members took voluminous testimony over 10 months and called for:
· Ensuring no one enters the justice system because of inadequate mental health care;
· Strengthening early intervention to prevent crises;
· Ensuring that people can access mental health services.
The Mental Health Association in Michigan and the Ethel and James Flinn Foundation followed up on the proposals a year after they were issued to see how much progress has been made. Their finding: not much.
What happened next probably was predictable. The Granholm administration defended its record, noting a 2.4 percent Medicaid mental health funding increase in a time of budget stress. Then a mental health association leader seemed to suggest that the administration's response was irrelevant to the commission's recommendations.
The two sides also disagreed over whether a public education campaign on mental health is being launched.
Meanwhile, someone has to deal with the mentally ill, many of whom wind up in lockups like the Washtenaw County Jail. Sheriff Dan Minzey estimates that 20 percent of his jail population of more than 300 offenders and suspects have a mental health problem. Minzey says the jail spent $120,000 last year on psychotropic drugs for inmates needing medication, and other costs are connected with a special watch for suicidal offenders and counseling for a range of conditions.
Yes, it is a complicated matter. Is a mental problem merely one part of a criminal's personality profile? Are some people turning to crime because of their mental illness? Or do some mentally ill simply have nowhere to turn? Maybe it's too much to expect consensus as well as action to spring up in Lansing on such difficult issues.
Decades ago, the state itself turned from a network of large hospitals for the mentally ill and advocated a community-based approach to serve patients. Housing the mentally ill in hospitals for long periods of time seemed a less compassionate, and more costly, option.
Whether incarceration has become an unwanted consequence of limited mental health alternatives may be a sensitive question. But it's one worth exploring. Jails such as Washtenaw County's, which often are near or past capacity, were not designed to be primary caregivers for the mentally ill.
The problems can't be hidden in a cell.