My response to the Fosters article: I was one of the few Republican candidates running for state-wide office in NH that attended the Candidate “Forum” sponsored by Community Partners in Rochester on Thursday October 23. Community Partners is one of ten Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC) contracted by NH Department of Health and Human Services (NH DHHS) and managed by the Bureau of Behavioral Health (BBH). While the invitation I received from Community Partners billed the event as a “forum” where people could “learn candidates’ positions on topics important to you”, it was evident to me very early on the agenda was misleading. I went there to explain who I was, what I’ve learned about behavioral health services offered to NH citizens in general and more specifically the things I’ve learned about improvements the BBH must make to provide more effective and efficient services. Unfortunately what I witnessed from Democrat candidates and the surrogates some candidates sent to this event was abhorrent. For the time I spent at the event, I listened to one Democrat candidate after another attack their opponents and Republicans in general. A lot of focus was on funding and wait lists, but what I didn’t hear was how previous Democratically controlled legislatures along with a Democratic governor created an $800 million dollar structural deficit that jeopardized funding for behavioral health services and caused wait lists to return to those people of NH needing vital mental health services. Nor did I hear anything about the July 2010 Performance Audit published by the Office of Legislative Budget Assistant. The report outlines “a number of weaknesses in the BBH’s oversight of the community mental health system. Contracting is inefficient, access to Bureau guidance needs improvement, Medicaid rates are not set properly, and some statutory requirements are not checked for CMHC compliance. BBH annual reviews of CMHCs should be improved, and reapprovals should be better scheduled. The BBH also needs to improve its oversight of community mental health providers. We found the BBH is not consistently collecting, analyzing, or acting upon program data to provide better oversight of the system. For example, the BBH has not managed its reporting systems effectively, including its long-awaited computerized system, Phoenix. In addition, the BBH improperly paid CMHCs from other DHHS accounts.” What was most glaring to me at a time Republican and Democrats were being asked to vote on their budget was this statement in the report: “Because the BBH has not established and collected outcome data, our ability to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of service provision by CMHCs was hampered. Without measuring individual consumers’ outcomes, it is impossible to evaluate whether the amount and types of services were excessive or inadequate.” I was appalled when I read this 88-page report four years ago and it is in this light that I was gravely concerned over the tenor of the nasty rhetoric and fear mongering Democrat candidates displayed during the Community Partners’ so-called “forum.” Simply throwing money at a system that’s supposed to provide critically needed services, knowing there are deep structural deficiencies, amounts to willing neglect. The issue of providing efficient and effective mental health services to the people of New Hampshire is more than about money. Our state government departments should be expected to follow the law and develop policies and procedures to ensure vital services offered to our citizens truly meet their needs. If we choose to ignore the facts and allow fear to drive the conversation, the results lead to an under-served community and a terrible waste of limited resources that could be used to improve mental health services and perhaps expand those services. Report Summary: gencourt.state.nh.us/LBA/AuditReports/PerformanceReports/CMHS_2010p.pdf Detailed Report: gencourt.state.nh.us/LBA/AuditReports/PerformanceReports/CMHS_2010p_full.pdf
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 13:20:08 +0000
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