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Budget cuts would force police officers, jails to care for mentally ill

This AP story by Sommer Ingram makes the excellent point that budget cuts to mental health services amount to a de facto decision to force police officers and county jails to care for the mentally ill:"We're about to see huge setbacks. I think we're going to get slaughtered," said Leon Evans, chief executive of Bexar County Mental Health Care services. "We've been developing some tools so people don't have to go to the hospital and prison. But I think all these programs that are very effective, that help to reclaim lives, are at risk."Experts say slashing mental health funding will have a painful and resounding effect across Texas when the mentally ill can't access the treatment and medication they need to function."What's happening is the criminalization of mental illness," said Polly Hughes, public policy chair of National Alliance on Mental Illness...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 13, 2011 (boomark / email).