Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston
Globe
January 24, 2000, Monday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A16
LENGTH: 320 words
HEADLINE:
MORE ROOM FOR THE MENTALLY ILL
BODY:
Despite
significant gains in mental health care, adult victims still lack adequate
facilities for living in community settings where they can lead more normal
lives. The state budget taking shape in the Cellucci administration could
provide hope for progress on this persistent problem by expanding even by a
token amount the commitment to such programs. Such a move would make fiscal
sense as well as dealing with a human problem.
The state's mental health
services, along with private providers of care, are increasingly sensitive to
the need for early intervention in the treatment of young victims of mental
illness. Such intervention can avert more serious illness as victims age, but
many patients continue to have problems into adulthood, often after private
insurance coverage has been exhausted. The state's
mental health services then become the providers of last
resort, both for hospitalization and for outpatient
care. Almost 150 patients in state facilities are ready to move
into community settings for continuing outpatient treatment but are unable to do
so because no places are available. Mental health advocates argue that expanding
the outpatient program by as little as $2 million in the next
budget would be an important step toward alleviating the backlog, opening the
way for complete solution of the problem in following years.
The
consequences are not confined to adult patients trapped in hospital settings.
Their presence limits the capacity of hospitals to admit new patients with acute
problems, inflicting unnecessary burdens on them, their families, and the
community. Furthermore, hospitalization costs $149,000 a year
per patient, while outpatient care averages $33,000.
Mental health care has made many strides in recent decades, to the point
where comparatively minor steps can make a big difference. Expanded housing
support services is one such step.
LOAD-DATE: January
24, 2000 
