An ongoing coversation about the treatment of mental health patients in the state has started to gain a foothold in recent years.
And last week’s shooting of a teenager in Southport who was in the midst of a schizophrenic episode has been brought up as an example of how the system needs reform.
Southport Police Chief J.V. Dove said Det. Byron Vassey shot and killed 18-year-old Keith Vidal, but would not comment on the circumstances around Vidal’s death.
Vassey is on administrative leave pending the result of an FBI investigation. The details of the investigation have not been released. Vassey has served with the Southport police for nine years, Dove said.
“The biggest challenge is that the system has been churning in chaos and change for the last 10 to 12 years. When things change constantly it’s remarkably destabilizing to people,” she said.
Dr. David Rubinow, chairman of the UNC psychiatry department, said the state needs to do more than talk about the system’s problems.
Rubinow said the state paid a consultant to evaluate the mental health system a little more than a decade ago.
The consultant reported the state spent too much per capita on hospitals, and state money should be focused on initiatives that provide mental health patients support at the community level, Rubinow said.
“The more effective care was to create capacity in the community,” he said.