Psychiatric News June 17, 2005
Volume 40 Number 12
© 2005 American Psychiatric Association
p. 9
Why Help Mentally Ill People?
Richard Scheffler and Neal Adams listed six "primary arguments"
in favor of Proposition 63, a California ballot initiative that taxes people
with an annual income of $1 million or more to support mental health
services.
Those arguments were described in the article "Millionaires and
Mental Health: Proposition 63 in California" in the May 3 Health
Affairs:
- Mental health services are underfunded. Absent new funds, the California
budget crisis will threaten existing funding and will not allow for necessary
increases.
- Increasing funding for mental health services will improve the situation of
people who are homeless. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill states
that 50,000 mentally ill people in California are homeless as a result of
deinstitutionalization between 1957 and 1988.
- Better access to improved community-based services has been shown to be
effective in diverting people with mental illness away from the criminal
justice system.
- Increased funding provided by Proposition 63 will reduce total spending in
the health care system, because people with mental illness who lack
appropriate community-based services use costly emergency and inpatient
services.
- Millionaires can afford to pay the tax that results from Proposition
63.
- Passage is the "right thing to do."
Related Article:
-
Complex Strategy Leads To Success of MH Initiative
- Kate Mulligan
Psychiatr News 2005 40: 9.
[Full Text]
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