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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah is ill-equipped to meet the needs of its mentally ill residents, according to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, which on its national report card gave Utah a grade of D.
In its first state-by-state analysis, NAMI gave five states B's, 16 and the District of Columbia C's, 19 states D's and eight got F's. No state received an A, and two did not respond to requests for information.
Thursday's report ranked Utah 29th in the nation for per capita mental health spending and 34th in total spending.
"We know that treatment works, we know that recovery is possible," said Sheri Wittwer, executive director of NAMI UTAH. "But helping people to access mental health treatment is the difficulty, and that is a funding issue."
Sen. Gene Davis, a public relations coordinator for Valley Mental Health, was one of several lawmakers on the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee who fought for up to $4 million in additional funding for community mental health centers.
The legislative committee ultimately recommended $2 million in ongoing funds, as well as $2 million in one-time monies. The Executive Appropriations Committee awarded just $1.5 million to mental health, and one-third of that is earmarked for expansion of an existing center rather than direct community care.
The funds would have helped replace some $7 million lost last year through federal changes to the Medicaid program.
The cuts caused 4,500 Utah mental health consumers to lose services.
The Legislature in 2005 allocated $2 million in one-time funding to address the problem, which allowed about 1,000 of those people to get back into treatment. But with that cut in half this year, many poor Utahns will lose services once again.
"All of a sudden they're out in the cold," Davis said.
NAMI awarded Utah a C-minus for information accessibility.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
