State lags on mental health reforms

According to the latest report from an independent monitor, New Hampshire is not adequately improving its mental health system.

In 2014 New Hampshire settled a class-action lawsuit by committing $30 million over four years to improve its community mental health infrastructure. The settlement requires a court-appointed "Expert Reviewer" to measure the progress of improvements every six months.

According to that reviewer's June 2016 report, New Hampshire is far behind the schedule established in the settlement agreement. 

For example, right now the state's community treatment teams have a capacity to serve roughly 800 individuals. Community treatment teams are supposed to have the capacity to serve 1,500 individuals.

The state's mobile crisis unit, intended to provide emergency mental health services to individuals in the community, is delivering most crisis interventions by telephone rather than in person.

The report also noted that the process to transition patients from institutions to community treatment is still very slow. Sometimes patients are discharged to inappropriate locations, such as homeless shelters.

"The time for patience on these issues is over," the report concludes.

However, the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has made some notable improvements in community treatment. For example, nine of ten treatment regions now report competency to treat substance use disorder. Just six months ago, only one region reported staff competency to treat addiction.

Some may argue that addressing drug abuse is the most pressing priority for New Hampshire right now. 326 individuals died from drug overdose in 2014, compared to 247 suicides.  According to some projections, New Hampshire will have almost 500 overdose deaths in 2016. 

The report also noted that some management changes at DHHS may help the state meet the requirements of the settlement.

Do you have an opinion on the state's community mental health system? Let us know in the comments.