North Carolina fell short of obeying the federal government’s command to move thousands with serious mental illness “into their communities.” Shortcomings include failing to provide 708 persons with affordable housing and not filling gaps in services. North Carolina has spent almost $50 million on the effort since last year, and about half the states are in the same predicament.
Former North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue’s administration signed the deal which requires that 3,000 people who otherwise would be living in adult care homes or mental hospitals would get affordable housing in their communities by mid-2020. The state’s total price tag was estimated at nearly $300 million.
[Something’s missing.] Justice Department had threatened a lawsuit in 2011 because it said thousands of people with mental illness were segregated from society in adult care homes. Many had been released from state psychiatric hospitals and lacked access to community treatment.
Were all these people’s “serious functional impairments” misdiagnosed? I fall short of Christian love, but this only reminds me of my stalker who used to say in his letters that a nice, warm embrace by me would cure all his ills.
