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Health Resource Capacity Assessment for Danielson, Connecticut, June 2003Health Needs and Barriers to Care: Mental HealthInadequate mental health system capacity was cited by numerous stakeholders as a severe shortage in Danielson. It is estimated that between 87,500 and 125,000 Connecticut residents have a diagnosable mental health condition74. United Services, the local mental health safety net provider, is seeing increasing caseloads with declining available resources and, consequently, has substantial waiting lists for virtually all services. Medicaid rates do not meet the costs of delivering care. Administrators have stated that they will be forced to reduce services and capacity. Adult services were identified by many as especially tight. United Services' grant funding from the state Dept. of Mental Health and Addiction Services focuses only on patients with "severe and persistent mental illness" who comprise roughly 10% of the population needing care75. United Services also provides an emergency response unit, which is "very busy". However, providers are placed in the very difficult position of stabilizing emergency patients, who are then placed on a waiting list for many months, during which the patient declines without treatment and ends up needing emergency services again. Many providers, both within United Services and in the community, movingly described personal feelings of helplessness to change the situation. One stated, "It is completely unacceptable to expect someone who is depressed to wait 9 months for treatment and not expect them to get worse in the meantime." Providers across fields universally recognized and appreciated the difficult position United Services and their providers have been placed in by state funding decisions. The state recognizes this need, most recently in the Report of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Mental Health, July 2000, a collaborative analysis of the mental health needs of Connecticut residents76. There has been progress toward some of the report's recommendations, but that progress has not yet touched Danielson77. There is skepticism among some stakeholders that it ever will (see Funding and Healthcare Costs). Next: Health Needs and Barriers to Care: Substance Abuse and Hepatitis C Infection Footnotes
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