Thousands with mental problems not being served

Tuesday, June 18, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Thousands of Clark County residents with mental problems are not being served because of gaps in the state's system, a report says.

The study, released Monday by the state Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services, says high priorities should be placed on providing more hospital beds for the mentally ill, as well as more psychiatric emergency services, counseling, medication programs and services to the homeless.

The state has not estimated how much it would cost to make the improvements, division administrator Carlos Brandenburg said Monday. The study provides the division information it will use to build its upcoming biennial budget, he said.

It comes at a time when the state is facing a $240 million shortfall for the current biennium.

The report, called the "2002 Needs Assessment" was written by Laura Valentine, a researcher for the division. It estimated that 5.4 percent of the state's population -- about 83,000 people -- suffer from serious mental illness. Of that total 25 percent may be homeless at any given time, it said.

A National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors study ranked Nevada 35th in total and per-capita spending for mental health programs, Valentine said in the study. The state ranks 47th in per-capita spending for state mental hospitals, the study said.

For this fiscal year the division has a budget of $134.3 million, which is due to grow to $143.4 million on July 1, the start of a new fiscal year, according to the Legislative Fiscal Analyst Office.

The report found shortages in services at the Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services, which was treating 11,528 people, both inpatients and outpatients, at the end of 2001, with about 45 percent of them diagnosed as severely mentally ill.

Of the total, 1,442 people were hospitalized at the end of 2001, leaving "an unmet need or gap of 237, and this service was deemed a 'high priority,' " the report said.