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Mental health a growing issue

News & Advance - 11/23/2016

Mental Health America (MHA) of Central Virginia, based in Lynchburg, is closing per a Nov. 13 story in The News & Advance.

Based on commonly accepted national statistics, 1 in 4 persons encounter mental health issues. Fortunately there are a number of large local organizations that aid in the provision of mental health services, including Centra Health Piedmont Psychiatric, Horizon Behavioral Health Care and Liberty University's doctoral programs in counseling which place student interns locally.

However, the demise of MHA, a valuable community service, reflects a larger financial struggle of many local nonprofit organizations serving persons with disabilities and senior residents across the heart of Virginia. In addition, the recent loss of the Center for Wellness and Recovery also underscores this downward trend in funding for smaller private nonprofits that address local disability concerns including mental health matters. Also, in 2011, Crisis Line of Central Virginia shut down.

A reduction in funding for MHA from the United Way of Central Virginia over the past several years hastened the crisis. United Way has shifted its focus toward local youth programs not related to mental health services.

As such, there is growing perception of declining community support for mental health and other disability related services.

Look at the obituaries in the local newspaper and the number of young persons with no apparent cause of death noted.

It continues to be apparent that local changes are needed to reduce the fragmentation created by the separate organizations that provide services; enhance access to quality care, long-term supports and services; and promote consistency in community living policies.

While there has been past local discussion of the community need to consolidate leadership, little has happened due to "turf" issues. Turf-ism is the non-cooperation or conflict between organizations with seemingly common goals or interests.

As difficult as change can be, individual people with disabilities as well as senior citizens stand to gain significantly from such change. There are so many common issues that need to be addressed.

Financial savings in public tax funding as well as private support are potentially enormous by such a consolidation of services.

In Region 2000, the natural lead organization for this effort is the Central Virginia Alliance for Community Living, a role it assumed in 2014. As such, it is time to call upon both public (i.e. government) and private leadership to act to overcome the existing obstacles.

For the sake of our local community's future, public and private leadership is needed to address common issues facing people with disabilities and senior citizens. In this regard, the auspices of Region 2000 are needed.

PHIL THEISEN

Forest

Editor's note: The writer is the retired executive director of the Lynchburg Area Center for Independent Living.

A hero on the homefront

Thank you for The News & Advance's "Home of the Brave" supplement in the newspaper on Veterans Day issue.

I knew of some of our citizens who had received the Purple Heart, but I did not know that Leighton Dodd had been awarded one - much less two of them.

After his service in the Korean conflict, he should have received another medal. Becoming a prominent Lynchburg citizen, then being elected to City Council, on March 9, 1971, Dodd stated publicly what no white official had ever had the courage to say against racial discrimination in the Hill City.

A day later, Mr. and Mrs. Dodd received a cross burning brightly in their yard.

Readers who wish to know more about Mr. Dodd's civic bravery can learn more about it in Darrell Laurant's "A City Unto Itself: Lynchburg, Virginia in the 20th Century," pages 130-131, and this writer's "Lynchburg, Virginia: The First Two Hundred Years,1786-1986," pages 420-421.

The text of Mr. Dodd's speech is available at the Jones Memorial Library in Pamphlet #2528.

JAMES M. ELSON

U.S. Army Reserve - Retired Lynchburg