Our Health Policy Matters

All over the country, governors are finally beginning to propose new mental health services funding in the aftermath of last year’s mass shootings in Aurora and Sandy Hook. Notes: OH funding is from existing OHT appropriation. CT funding is bond money, some of which may be used by non-MHSA providers. There will be a long road back to policy sanity.  We have to dig ourselves out of the mess caused by $4.6 billion in state mental health cuts over the last few years.  But these governors give us hope that the funding-cut nightmare over which many of them have presided may be finally coming to an end.  In recent weeks, both Republicans and Democrats have announced new community behavioral health funding initiatives, typically ranging between $5 million and $20 million.   But support for community mental health services is not universal.  In states with the worst track records in funding mental health services, their governors continue to be sa...

All over the country, governors are finally beginning to propose new mental health services funding in the aftermath of last year’s mass shootings in Aurora and Sandy Hook. Notes: OH funding is from existing OHT appropriation. CT funding is bond money, some of which may be used by non-MHSA providers. There will be a long road back to policy sanity.  We have to dig ourselves out of the mess caused by $4.6 billion in state mental health cuts over the last few years.  But these governors give us hope that the funding-cut nightmare over which many of them have presided may be finally coming to an end.  In recent weeks, both Republicans and Democrats have announced new community behavioral health funding initiatives, typically ranging between $5 million and $20 million.   But support for community mental health services is not universal.  In states with the worst track records in funding mental health services, their governors continue to be sa...

The shock of sudden violence is so severe it takes your breath away. When it happens in a time and place where it is unexpected, it does more than just remind us that no one is immune to it.  It also reminds us how pervasive it is, how much it affects us all, and how important it is that we do something about it.  In the summer of 1989, I imagined that sudden, random violence was something far removed from my hometown.  But I was about to learn differently. An  article in The Atlantic has just detailed the event, dredging up some quarter century old memories of a day that changed my community’s life. I was running for Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut, at the time, and had reserved a booth at the city’s annual Sidewalk Sale in late July.  I was handing out yardsticks, asking for a vote “for government that measures up to your expectations.” Suddenly, there was a commotion about a block north of where I was standing.  I noticed people...

The shock of sudden violence is so severe it takes your breath away. When it happens in a time and place where it is unexpected, it does more than just remind us that no one is immune to it.  It also reminds us how pervasive it is, how much it affects us all, and how important it is that we do something about it.  In the summer of 1989, I imagined that sudden, random violence was something far removed from my hometown.  But I was about to learn differently. An  article in The Atlantic has just detailed the event, dredging up some quarter century old memories of a day that changed my community’s life. I was running for Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut, at the time, and had reserved a booth at the city’s annual Sidewalk Sale in late July.  I was handing out yardsticks, asking for a vote “for government that measures up to your expectations.” Suddenly, there was a commotion about a block north of where I was standing.  I noticed people...