Editorial: Time to pay the piper

Monday, Jan. 10, 2005 | 9:02 a.m.

The director of Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services, Jonna Triggs, is making a predictable request of Gov. Kenny Guinn and the 2005 Legislature -- she wants a 70 percent increase in her budget. This request has been predictable for at least the past 15 years, as mental health all that time has been a low priority in the state budget. The state must have realized that, at some point, such neglect would catch up with it and the piper would come calling.

Part of the increase would pay for an emergency room at the state's mental health campus at 6161 W. Charleston Boulevard. Had this facility been in place last summer, Clark County Manager Thom Reilly would not have had to declare a mental health emergency. A third of the emergency-room beds in area hospitals were occupied by mental-health patients when the emergency was declared July 9. The situation threatened the hospitals' ability to efficiently tend to accident victims or people with sudden sicknesses.

We support the requested budget increase. We also support an elevation of mental health's priority. If mental-health needs are respected, through adequate funding each biennium, there will likely never again be a need for such a sizable increase all at once.