Last month, the surgeon general released a 500-page report detailing how untreated mental illness devastates families and the economy. But in North Carolina, political wrangling and funding constraints have stifled a years-long campaign to improve the system. The mental health system's own missteps also have delayed changes. State and federal investigators question the way N.C. mental health officials spent tens of millions of dollars. Nonprofit lawyers sue the state in federal court for denying services to needy children.
Regulators often fail to investigate mistreatment of the mentally ill and developmentally disabled.
And families from the mountains to the coast complain of a cumbersome and unresponsive mental health system. This permeates the Division of Mental Health much more so than any other state agency I work with. Still, they worry the governor and top legislative leaders will continue to overlook a vulnerable and voiceless population. People don't care about the mentally ill. We aren't a constituency that has a real strong voting bloc.