EDITORIAL: Oklahoma would benefit from continued investment in mental health

April 05--OKLAHOMA is moving toward "performance-informed budgeting" for state government, an attempt to make agency heads show that the taxpayer funding they're receiving is being spent as wisely as possible. That'll be a walk in the park for Terri White.

As director of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, White already has piles of data showing the return that the state is getting on its investment in her agency. In short, it's substantial. Budget writers should remember this as they slice up the pie during this difficult budget year.

For the next fiscal year, lawmakers have $611 million less to allocate than they did a year ago. This will translate into budget cuts for several agencies. The mental health department should not be one of those. Indeed the Legislature should do all it can to meet White's request for $10.2 million more than she received last year.

Why? Because a flat budget would essentially represent a $10 million cut. This is because the agency needs about $9 million to make up for decreases in Medicaid reimbursement for two large programs it administers, and roughly $1 million to do such things as maintain drug court slots, keep its best-in-the-nation Systems of Care program going at full speed, and reimburse law enforcement for transporting mentally ill offenders to crisis centers.

Systems of Care, in place in 72 counties, helps children ages 6 to 18 who have serious emotional and behavioral problems. The program has greatly reduced arrests and out-of-home placements for these children -- and White has the statistics to prove it.

She'll also gladly review and document the success and the return on investment of mental health courts, drug courts and a family drug court in Tulsa. The latter works to reunify families in which children have been taken into state custody because of substance abuse in the home. A three-year study found that program participants were reunited with their families about eight months sooner than nonparticipants, saving the state Department of Human Services about $5 million.

Mental health courts, found in 16 counties, have reduced arrests, allowed offenders to find work and cut the number of inpatient treatment days. That is to say, they have saved the state money while helping those who need it. The same is true of traditional drug courts, which have operated across the state for the past 20 years.

Without some increase to the mental health budget, cuts will be made to programs because some of the items on the $10.2 million list must, by statute, be funded. A flat budget would be the same as a $10.2 million cut, which would result in at least 5,000 Oklahomans losing their services, and probably far more than that.

As it stands, there is a yawning gap between the number of Oklahomans who need mental health and substance abuse services, and the number the state is able to help. White's agency assists about 190,000 Oklahomans annually; the number in need of treatment stands at between 700,000 and 950,000.

This helps explain why Oklahoma is No. 2 nationally in the rate of mental illness among its populace. Mental health and substance abuse issues contribute to the vast array of other ills that plague the state -- a high incarceration rate, an overworked foster care system, a high suicide rate, poor health rankings, etc. "We have to have good brain health," White says.

What's needed is a long-term plan, backed by regular, annual investment by the state, to narrow the treatment gap and thus improve Oklahoma's overall health. For now, though, it's vital the agency be funded in a way that allows it to continue doing what it's been doing with great success under White.

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