[Vision2020] Fw: Idaho Falls Post Register

[Shirley Ringo]

Visionaries:

The Idaho Legislature's "cost containment" for Medicaid programs and help for those with disabilities will prove to be anything but that.

Shirley





    
  Idaho's ugly 'new normal'

  Corey Taule

  ----------------------------------------------------------

  Ugly, sad and potentially tragic as it was, the recent shootout between local law enforcement and Scott Daniel Parker wasn't surprising. The 911 call from Parker's mother indicated her son was mentally ill and in crisis. Unfortunately, we've been down that road before.

  In September 2010, a mentally ill man shot Ryan Mitchell in the back as he left a Pocatello coffee shop. The shooter, Gerald Durk Simpson, had been told a few months earlier that because of budget cuts, the state could no longer afford to treat his mental illness.

  That jibed with what the State Planning Council on Mental Health told Idaho's lawmakers in February 2010. Cutting mental health funding, this panel of experts said, would result in three things:

  - More suicides.

  - More violent encounters between the mentally ill and police.

  - More mentally ill folks landing in emergency rooms.

  A check with local law enforcement shows this panel knew what it was talking about. Bonneville County Coroner Jonathan Walker said suicides and attempts are up, something he attributes directly to a reduction in available services.

  Bonneville County Sheriff Paul Wilde noticed his deputies were dealing more frequently with the mentally ill. So, he checked the numbers. What Wilde discovered was startling. From January to October of 2008, officers responded to 61 calls concerning psychiatric episodes or suicide attempts. That same time period in 2009 resulted in 118 calls. That jumped to 139 last year. So far this year, officers have responded to 256 calls.

  Sometimes those calls result in arrests. A severely mentally ill inmate needs to be segregated and watched constantly. Often, however, no arrest is made. But for their own good, the person with mental illness needs to be hospitalized.

  Eight years ago, a busy week for the Bonneville County Prosecutor's Office meant handling one or two civil commitment cases. But when Bruce Pickett became prosecutor, he noticed civil commitments were on the rise. So, he began tracking them. So far this year, Bonneville County has averaged nearly four per week.

  Each case must be judged by two state-designated examiners. Because many of these folks are indigent, taxpayers bear those costs, plus hospital and doctor's fees. The increase in cases means the Behavioral Health Center often can't handle them all. Several times this year, deputies have transported mentally ill folks who committed no crimes to hospitals in Pocatello, Twin Falls and Boise. So, cutting budgets on the front end is resulting in more expense -- not to mention a healthy dose of human misery -- on the back end.

  Jessica Hill isn't surprised. A licensed social worker, Hill said the agency she works for has fewer clients because of budget cuts. The need for services, however, has not gone down.

  But Hill sees this from another perspective. She's also an Idaho Falls police officer and SWAT team member. Too often, Hill said, officers encounter the mentally ill in full crisis mode. Many of these folks, Hill said, tell police they no longer qualify for services.

  "I knew this was going to happen," Hill said. "It's not a surprise to me whatsoever."

  Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has overseen a massive reduction in state government, something he describes as "the new normal."

  Let's be clear, then, about what "the new normal" really looks like to those who get to deal with the consequences of the politicians' numbers crunching:

  - It looks like Gerald Simpson, a man with no history of violence, opening fire on a stranger.

  - It looks like Scott Daniel Parker leaving the house armed with automatic weapons and mad as hell.

  - It looks like the guy using his own feces to draw pictures on jailhouse walls.

  - It looks like the little old lady who once had a social worker to help keep her on medications, but who now must go it alone. Sometimes that works. Sometimes a sheriff's deputy wades through months of accumulated garbage and animal waste in her living room so he can drive her to the only hospital with room to treat her, in Boise.

  Idaho is building a considerable budget surplus. Already, some Republicans are saying they want to hand it over to corporations and rich folks through income tax cuts.

  The first job of government, however, is to protect its citizenry.

  Clearly, Otter's "new normal" isn't doing that. Lawmakers need to fully restore the mental health budget cuts of the past three years.

  Before things really turn ugly.



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