The Legislature and mental health spending
January 20, 2019 - 9:00 pm
It is good to see that bills aimed at improving accessibility to mental health services have been submitted to the 2019 Legislature. When access to good mental health services is rapid, qualitative and intensive, everybody benefits. Patients improve more quickly and have fewer mental health emergencies. Family burdens are diminished, and our jails as well as our hospital emergency rooms are not strained to provide services that they were not designed to deliver.
Accessible mental health services are humanitarian in nature and have long-term economic benefits. They make good, sound budgetary sense.