Buncombe County Feels Irresponsible State Cuts

Mtn. X:

At its meeting last night, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution condemning state attempts to raid local mental-health-fund balances to meet North Carolina’s own budget shortage. Such a loss would leave more mentally ill people in jails or hospitals for lack of proper treatment, county officials said.
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Taking away the local fund balance would gut the Western Highlands Network’s programs in several areas, including crisis teams, programs to provide psychiatric help to rural residents and lab tests for indigent mentally ill people, among other vital programs, Stone said. The network covers eight counties, including Buncombe, Madison and Henderson and cooperates with many local agencies.

It would also compound an already worsening situation, as Stone noted that the state has not paid its share of local mental-health funds — some $4.4 million — for the last two months.

“We would not be able to make up that gap without our fund balance — and now they want to take that too,” she said. “This is an area where the state turned over responsibility for managing mental health to local entities and since has been steadily taking away any tools we have to effectively do that. We’d have to reduce services by $1.5 million a year. They would end up in jails, emergency rooms, impacting local social-service departments and law enforcement.”