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Key Social Service in Laughlin Now Has No Choice
(February 1st, 2009)
I’ve never been a particularly fervent proponent of government solutions to societal problems. Ronald Reagan’s voice still rings true to my ear when I recall the words from his 1981 inaugural address, "Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem." But conservatives have their compassionate side as well. If you survey most reasonable people and ask them if they support giving welfare to people, a majority will say no, but if you rephrase the question and ask the same people, should the government help the truly needy, a majority will also agree. And that’s where we stand today with trying to find an alternative to our gutted mental health clinic. It’s broke, broken and discredited.
An Empty and Lifeless Shell
The short and tortured history of the Laughlin Community Mental Health Center is a convoluted mess that I’ve delved into here before and I won’t take up the time of readers for more than a brief recap. Most every penny ever appropriated to the clinic was wasted and the few successful and effective therapists were harassed and eventually forced out. We have now reached a point in the current state budget where the clinic is having its budget reduced so drastically that it simply isn’t possible to operate with any real value to its desperately needy client base. So the reform that the clinic needed so badly is now a moot point. This is a shame since several of the worst, most incompetent and hostile headquarters administrators who handicapped the clinic have been purged from the system.
The Rural Clinics Community Mental Health Centers Agency recently held a Town Hall meeting and tried to put the best face on the impending budget cuts, but the therapy plans they are putting into place are riddled with inadequacies and for a variety of reasons I’ll discuss some other time, simply won’t work here in Laughlin.
Any Port In A Storm
One solution for some mental health clients will be to find alternative therapists in the private sector on their own. This is going to be fraught with several complications for many people. The first is that behavioral therapists of every stripe are in short supply in the Tri-State area. And many of the current and former clients of the clinic here in Laughlin will not necessarily have the resources to pay for them.
While it will not be a solution for everyone left in the wreckage of the clinic some clients will be able to secure eligibility from Nevada Medicaid. The state Medicaid system itself is under intense scrutiny from the current legislative session and may have to do some considerable belt tightening. But overall it is a larger budget than Mental Health and may be the only place left for mental health clients to seek help.
Time To Step Up To The Plate
For many years the Laughlin Family Resources Coalition took the lead in securing mental health services for the needy in our town. They passed that off a few years ago to the mental health clinic when it opened. Now the FRC needs to set three priorities for 2009 to once again support mental health.
First it needs to help as many mental health patients as possible qualify for Nevada Medicaid and in the process improve its communications with the Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services. Secondly, it needs to establish and maintain a directory of health care providers and pharmacies in the Tri-State area who accept Nevada Medicaid and assist them in processing their applications where needed, since the state inexplicably doesn’t have this information on hand for its citizens. Many such providers accept Arizona and California Medicaid but not Nevada’s program. Lastly, they need to visit other health care providers and pharmacies who don’t currently accept Nevada Medicaid and encourage them to sign up. Hopefully city and county officials throughout the Tri-State area will help the FRC in doing this. It would certainly benefit their own communities, bringing more spending to their local medical industries. And it will have the further benefit of assisting all Nevada Medicaid participants in Laughlin not just mental health patients. Our Town government is paralyzed and the mental health clinic is a train wreck. If the FRC doesn’t step up to the plate, who will?
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