Report: Michigan shorts mental health industry by $150 million annually

By JAY GREENE:  For More Info, Go Here…

• Report by mental health providers calls for increase in funding
• Underfunding, increased demands have led to more homelessness, poverty, incarceration and unnecessary deaths
• Pilot studies to test theory that integration of physical and mental health can save costs, expand care

Increased homelessness, poverty, incarceration and deaths are predicted in Michigan by a new report that concludes there is a $150 million gap between the cost of health care and the funding provided to the state’s $2.8 billion-plus public mental health system.

The study, which was commissioned by the Community Mental Health Association of Michigan, outlines several major changes in the population served since the current managed health care funding model was established in 1997.

Besides the opioid crisis — which resulted in more than 1,700 deaths in Michigan in 2016 alone and tens of thousands of addictions — the increased rates of incarceration of those with mental health needs and autism have caused many more problems within the system and society, the report says.