Three years later, little progress has been seen.
The department cited the state’s failure to accomplish joint goals in a Nov. 6 letter, calling for bigger steps in improving housing and treatment options for mentally ill residents.
“We still see people not getting the care they actually need,” said Jack Register, executive director of the North Carolina branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “Or, in some cases, not even enough for them to make it and we see them de-compensating and ending up in places like jails or even dead.”
Register said the state failed to meet standards in core areas including housing and vocational training.
“The state was inappropriately having people housed in adult care homes as opposed to community-based services and supportive housing,” he said.
He said the North Carolina public health sector has been in transformation for the past fifteen years, which has caused consistent policy and funding problems.
This evolution has raised concerns for many groups involved in mental health advocacy.
“It’s very hard to see how much ground we have lost,” said Marci White, executive director of Mental Health America of the Triangle.