With a merger in the works for Orange County’s only mental healthcare management entity and a new Medicaid expansion bill on the table, local providers are hopeful statewide changes to mental healthcare will improve quality in the county as well.
Earlier this year, the OPC Area Program — which manages a network of publicly funded mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse services in Orange, Person and Chatham counties — chose to merge with Piedmont Behavioral Healthcare after the Orange County organization fell below a newly issued minimum service population.
Judy Truitt, area director of OPC, said PBH, which serves Cabarrus, Union, Davidson, Stanly and Rowan counties, has led North Carolina in using the Medicaid waiver.
Truitt said the OPC board approved Monday implementing use of the waiver by April 2012.
The waiver will bring state and Medicaid funding — the two largest sources of revenue for many service providers — under the control of one authority, she said.
“I think that everyone believes that managing all of those under one umbrella gives you the opportunity to be more creative,” Truitt said.
Karen Kincaid Dunn, executive director of Club Nova — a mental healthcare provider in Carrboro — said she hopes her group will benefit from the merger.
“We are fortunate that we have some very well-informed leadership, but there are clearly a lot of people out there who have not sought treatment for mental illness,” she said.
Bernadette Pelissier, chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, said mental health is a critical issue in the county.