We were not surprised to read the acknowledgment by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that a lack of funding for mental health services has led to a backlog of admissions at state psychiatric facilities ("Maryland health chief says it was mistake not to seek more money for mental health beds," Aug. 2).
Unfortunately, this is not a new problem. Rather, it is the result of decades of inadequate investment in comprehensive community treatment and a full array of services for our friends and family members living with mental health and substance use disorders. Community behavioral health providers — both non-profit and for-profit — deliver services that facilitate recovery for people with mental illness and substance use disorders and divert people in crisis away from more costly emergency departments, state hospitals and jails. The historic and continued underfunding threatens their ability to operate and maintain quality, evidence-based programs and limits access to care for people in need.
Although funding for these providers has remained almost flat, demand has exploded by 65 percent since 2008. Providers are currently serving more than 180,000 people annually, administering traditional outpatient services, mobile treatment, crisis services, withdrawal management, rehabilitation, residential treatment, vocational services and housing. But they could serve more.
The Maryland Behavioral Health Coalition urged the General Assembly to enact legislation this year that would have provided much-needed support to maintain and strengthen our system of community providers. Though the backlog we currently face in the state hospitals did not happen overnight, and while one bill will not fix the problem, it certainly would have started us on the right path toward creating stability for community behavioral health providers and addressing increased demand for services. We call on state leaders to revisit the issue in the 2017 legislative session and to carefully consider new investments in the state's entire behavioral health system.
Linda Raines, Adrienne Breidenstine and Jessica Honke
The writers are, respectively, CEO of the Mental Health Association of Maryland, vice president of policy and communications for Behavioral Health System Baltimore and policy and advocacy director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill — Maryland.