Texas is stopping all treatment of several classes of mental illness, including PTSD and BPD and OCD on Sept. 1, 2004.
To the Governor of Texas:
We, the citizens and friends of one of the greatest and wealthiest States in the USA must insist that you do something to stop the implementation of the plan to limit entire classes of mental health treatment recipients to "crisis care" only.
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This is not a sane plan. Any fool knows that the cost of providing several hundred dolllars' worth of medication a month and occasional supervisory doctors' visits for people with chronic mental disorders such as PTSD or BPD is far less expensive than crisis management. "Crisis mangement" involves the use of expensive ambulance and police personnel and equipment, expensive emergency room fgacilities, weeks of expensive hospitilazation (to be expanded to months in view of the fact that these patients cannot be released to a medicated, controlled life in the community if this plan comes into effect).
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There is no sane financial reason for this plan.
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We must also consider the ripple effect: families of the mentally ill who will be subjected to unmedicated symptoms of their loved one in the period before there finally is a "crisis", and the repetiion of trauma and injury, the possible involvment of the criminal justice system, the deterioration in standards of living as such people find themselves unable to cope with daily responsibilities.
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Please do the right thing, Governor Perry, and do not try to pretend that entire classes of illness can be ignored. This is going to cost Texas MORE, not LESS money. Do the right thing, the sane thing, and keep mental health facilities open for all classes of illness.
