During the week of September 11, 2000, the leadership of the NC House and Senate named members to serve on the Joint Legislative Committee on Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse. The Committee was established through legislation passed during the 2000 legislative short session. The Committee is charged with developing a plan for mental health system reform and to oversee its implementation

The Committee is comprised entirely of legislators. Those appointed are:

The Committee was comprised entirely of legislators to ensure that there would be sufficient legislative commitment and support for any legislation and budgetary requests that came out of the Committee. But while the Committee itself is comprised of legislators, the charge to the Committee is to "ensure that the Plan provides for the active involvement of consumers and families in the mental health system reform and ongoing implementation". The newly appointed co-chairs will need to meet and agree on how to structure the committee but it is likely that they will establish a number of subcommittees, comprised primarily of non-legislators, to develop recommendations on particular topic areas. The Committee is charged with presenting an initial report to the General Assembly in January 2001 so a great deal of work needs to be done quickly. This will only be the beginning, however. The Committee will meet for at least five years and guide the reform of the public mental health system.

The formation of the Committee was recommended by State Auditor Ralph Campbell. Mr. Campbell and consultants from Public Consulting Group (PCG), completed an exhaustive and provocative review of the public MH/DD/SA system this past spring. The report documented numerous problems with how the system is governed, how services are provided, the type of services provided, and how the system is financed. The 740 page report contains over 50 recommendations on how the state should address the problems. The full auditor’s report can be found at http://www.osa.state.nc.us/perform/pareport/per-0184.pdf.  If you can’t read the full report, the Executive Summary gives a good overview.

The Oversight Committee is charged with reviewing the recommendations from the state auditor and using those recommendations as a starting point to reform the system. Over time, the Committee will need to refine, modify, and develop these recommendations into a plan for the state that will get the backing of the General Assembly and the next Governor.

While there isn’t a crystal ball to know whether the Committee will be successful, there is a tremendous amount of interest and concern among legislators about the public system and a commitment to make changes. NAMI members can play a role in supporting the Committee’s efforts and keeping reform on the agenda of all legislators.

NAMI families and consumers have a great deal of expertise to share on how the system works, doesn’t work, and should work. There will be opportunities to share that expertise with the Committee and we will keep you informed of those opportunities. For now, the best things to do are:

Become familiar with the Auditor’s recommendations. You can do this by reading the report.  Or you can go to the NAMI North Carolina response to the recommendations on this web page. This document clumps recommendations by topic area and provides NAMI North Carolina’s reaction to the recommendations. Or you can review the NAMI North Carolina Talking Points to the Auditor’s report.

As the Committee begins its work, it is critical that legislators stay interested and committed to fixing the system. This is an election year and we need to make mental health reform an election year issue. Candidates will have public forums, meetings at civic clubs, gatherings at churches and in private homes. Try to attend these gatherings. Briefly inform the candidates about the problems and needs of the system. Ask questions such as:

• Are you aware of the State Auditor’s report and recommendations?

• Will you support the work of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee?

• The Auditor recommends shifting responsibility for managing the MH/DD/SA system to county government. Do you support this move? Under what conditions?

• The Auditor recommends developing an array of community-based services. Would you be willing to support the bridge funding necessary to establish these services?

• The Auditor recommends reducing state hospital beds. Do you support this recommendation?, Under what circumstances.

There is a good chance the candidate won’t know the answers. That’s ok. Thank them for considering the question and offer to send them information (The Talking Points would be a good, short document) or meet with them to discuss the issue more fully.

The point is, if we don’t ask the questions, legislators won’t know it’s an issue that the public cares about. We need to let them know that this is an issue whose time has come.