| Place a Classified | Subscribe today | July 10, 2009 |
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Helping mentally ill
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho residents who suffer from mental illness or drug or alcohol addictions would have greater opportunity for examination and treatment under bills approved by a House committee.
One bill would expand a grant program for mental health treatment to address substance abuse, while another would authorize judges to order defendants to undergo substance abuse assessments and mental health exams and to provide plans for treatment. A third bill would put counselors in rural Idaho schools to aid children at risk for drug and mental health problems. Members of the House Health and Welfare committee unanimously approved all three bills Wednesday. They now go to the full House for consideration. About a half-dozen bills addressing substance abuse and mental health treatment have been introduced this legislative session, following an interim study of the state’s treatment programs. All remain alive, just days before the session is scheduled to end.
In conducting the interim study, lawmakers recognized Idaho is at a point where action is required to address mental health and substance abuse problems in the state, said Rep. Margaret Henbest, D-Boise. “We have one of the fastest-growing prison systems in the country, and we have one of the most underfunded mental health systems in the country,” she said after the votes. “I think we all had just realized something needed to be done.”
Under one bill recommended by the interim committee, judges would have broader sentencing guidelines to address the high incidence of substance abuse among offenders. Among Idaho prisoners, 16 percent suffer from serious mental illness. About 82 percent have substance abuse issues involving either drugs or alcohol, and half of those are addicted to methamphetamine, said Rep. Sharon Block, R-Twin Falls, sponsor of the bill. It passed the committee 10-0.
On a 9-0 vote, the committee also approved a bill expanding on an existing grant program for local communities to provide mental health treatment. The program, created last year, would now include substance abuse treatment as well. The bill would provide $2 million in the fiscal year that begins in July, with an additional $1.4 million in ongoing funds.
Already, the program has awarded money for communities to build transitional housing facilities, and to provide crisis intervention training and respite care for families caring for mentally ill relatives, among other things. “The beauty of this is we have gone to communities and asked them, ’What do you need help with?”’ said Henbest, sponsor of the bill. “They know their problems, and they know their partnerships that are available to deal with them.”
A third bill would put four clinically-trained counselors in rural Idaho schools to intervene with students deemed at risk of developing mental health or substance abuse problems. Currently, just two districts in the state have such programs.
The three-year pilot program, with a price tag of nearly $1 million, would include a research study to evaluate its success when it ends. Paul Carroll, of the state Department of Juvenile Corrections, threw his support behind the bill. Idaho now has 430 juvenile inmates, at a cost of $25 million per year.
“What we see in these kids early on is substance abuse, mental health problems going back years and years,” Carroll said. “Intervention and prevention is about an individualized approach for each of those kids that’s in the stream drowning.” The committee voted 11-0 for the bill.
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