Budget committee takes issue with mental health system

Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Rosetta Johnson, president of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Nevada, told Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means members on Tuesday that Nevada ranks 48th in the nation for services to the mentally ill.

"Our organization represents 50,000 people and their family members," Johnson said. "But we don't have a powerful, sexy lobbyist to talk for us."

Waiting lists are among the greatest barriers to care, according to Division of Mental Health Deputy Administrator Jean Laird. Laird said the lists lengthened after lawmakers slashed mental health budgets in 1991.

Laird's statistics show there are 100 eligible people waiting to be placed in group homes statewide. If Gov. Bob Miller's budget is approved, only 37 of those people will be placed by 1999.

At least 123 people are also waiting for counselors to manage their individual cases. Miller's budget would help only 20 of those people, leaving 103 on the waiting list until 1999.

Assemblywoman Sandi Krenzer, D-Las Vegas, said such statistics don't even show the scope of the problem.

"Some people see those waiting lists and don't even get on them when they realize they're so long," Krenzer said.

Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, who chairs Senate Finance, demanded that the mental health budget subcommittee review the problem.

"The governor's budget shortchanges these people," he said. "If we can find dollars, large dollars, to put in class-size reduction programs, then we ought to be looking at our priorities."

Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, also asked why waiting lists were continually built into the system.

"We have constituents who are on our cases all the time about this issue," Rawson said. "These waiting lists are intolerable."

Raggio and other committee members also asked Laird for more complete information about services provided. One such service - the cost of medication - was left out of the budget completely.

According to division officials, the budget was left incomplete because of ongoing studies of how to best obtain medications. Laird said the agency will request supplemental funds to pay for medications.

Also high on the mental health subcommittee's agenda will be the question of whether to build a new facility at the Nevada Mental Health Institute in Sparks. The governor's budget recommended $3 million for renovations of Building 8, which former patient Anthony Beha said was in a state of disrepair.

"You get the feeling that you're being corralled into an ancient, dark building, more like a prison than a hospital," Beha said. "It's hard to feel like you're going anywhere or making any progress."

Sen. Bernice Mathews, D-Sparks, said the subcommittee should consider a new $10 million building, especially since repairs to the old building will cost at least $6 million over the next two legislative sessions.

"If we continue to patch and paint, we're going to be in the same situation we were in when we started to cut the mental health budget," Mathews said. "In my opinion, building a new facility would be money well spent."