This paper, although advocating for the responsibility of mentally ill patients to be transferred over to the states, recognizes that the current system that states use for treating the mentally ill is still broken. Not only should the feral government be reformed, but the states will need to reform their some of their current healthcare policies as well. They should create a plan and create KPIs to measure their services, prioritize mental health care, and reorganize state government to incorporate more medical professionals.
First, the states should give up their generous match in funding from Medicare and Medicaid aid. In the past, this match in funding has been used to abuse patients and force them into unnecessary treatments. This comfortable funding has also left states unwilling to invest more money to better improve their care. By taking out the Medicare and Medicaid aid, states are forced to look into alternatives and turn to innovation to better treat their mentally ill citizens. States should explore a coordinated effort in counties and give them funding so they can better tailor policies that fit the residents in their jurisdiction.
Additionally, states would benefit in looking into short term hospitalizations and use surprise visits by authorities to ensure that the patients are not being abused. It would even be worth looking into training police and other authorities to properly identify and diagnose mental illness to prevent the atrocities that are happening in the nation’s correctional facilities. States should also look into cost breakdowns because they will soon realize that prescribing proper medication is cheaper than housing people in hospitals. By using assisted outpatient services (AOT) combined with medicine, states will slowly turn to more effective methods of treating people. This will take out the negative consequences of homelessness, victimization, unnecessary incarceration, and overly violent behavior. States can also mandate that patients comply with treatment to get their share of SSI and SSDI payments.
Next, states should start prioritizing mental illness services by becoming more aware of their constituents by bringing to light the long-term costs associated with homelessness compared to the relatively low cost of enacting reforms that not only assist the mentally ill m but also help cure them and make them a productive member of society. It will not be long until they realize that a majority of their funding is going towards patients with SMIs. To illustrate this, a study was conducted in Philadelphia, PA with 2703 ‘chronically homeless’ people. The researchers went on to calculate the cost of these individuals including medical, psychiatric, social services, jail, and public shelter costs for one year. The results were shocking. They concluded that, “60 percent of the group’s cost was accounted for by just 20 percent of the homeless; almost all (81 percent) of the high-cost homeless “had a diagnosis of a serious mental illness.” Another example includes a homeless mentally ill man named Murray Barr, famously known as Million-Dollar Murray, who costed the county at least $1million in the 10 years before he died. This case is not an isolated case, but is has costly duplications in counties across the United States. By making mental illness a priority, States will save a lot of tax money from their allocated budgets by reducing homelessness which can then be utilized for other major state projects.
