releases: http://susanwbrooks.house.gov//media-center/in-the-news/mental-health-funding-could-get-boost-in-states-budget
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| http://susanwbrooks.house.gov//media-center/in-the-news/mental-health-funding-could-get-boost-in-states-budget | Mental-Health Funding Could Get Boost in State's Budget | 2014-12-22 | 2014 | 2014-12 | Republican | House | IN | Susan Brooks | B001284 | susanwbrooks.house.gov | legacy | In 2012, Indiana cut more than $24 million, or 9 percent, from its mental health budget, according to a report published by the National Alliance on Mental Health. It was the second biggest state cut to mental health funding in the country, next to Illinois. Since then, state legislators haven’t upped funding, making Indiana one of only eight states that didn’t increase mental-health spending in 2014, according to a NAMI state legislation report. “The state has not been good at adding to the federal dollars that we get for mental health,” said Stephen McCaffrey, president and CEO of Mental Health America of Indiana. “We don’t put a lot of money into mental health and substance abuse in Indiana.” But the state’s withering mental-health spending could see a boost in the upcoming budget, which will be voted on next year. Rep. Mike Karickhoff, R-Kokomo, who will serve as the Budget Subcommittee Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said most of the funding for mental-health services will come out of the $11 million appropriated to enact criminal sentencing reform, which legislators passed last year. He said the question now is how and where to allocate that funding to provide local authorities the resources they need to properly treat mental-health problems. “Several discussions have taken place about what the needs of our local facilities might be, because different counties require different resources,” he said. “The challenge the legislature always faces will be how to equitably deploy those resources, and what best practices are available in other counties that can be replicated statewide.” Rep. Steve Davisson, R-Salem, who served as chairman of a mental health summer study committee and was appointed to the Ways and Means Committee, said he anticipates more money will be budgeted for mental health spending next year, beyond the money allocated for sentencing reform. “We’ve got to put money into this. There doesn’t seem to be any other option,” he said. “If we can get to the root of our mental-health problems, we can prevent a lot of crime and recidivism in the state. Every dollar we invest will probably pay us huge dividends down the road.” Mental Health America’s McCaffrey said his organization will be pushing legislators to not only increase funding, but look at restructuring how the state’s mental-health system operates to provide proactive treatment. “In mental health, we always treat people like they’re in stage four,” he said. “In cancer, it’s bad news if you wait to get treatment until stage four, but that’s what we do in mental health. We get bad results, and then we’re surprised. “We need to be smart in the way we put our systems together so that they’re integrated and do what we want them to do, and we’ve never done that.” Davisson said he’s working on some bills aimed at bolstering the state’s mental-health services, including one that would give clinicians and psychiatrists an incentive to offer telemedicine — a way to provide clients with counselling and treatment via online video conferencing. He said teleconferencing allows people in rural communities, where there aren’t any mental-health services, to access care from mental-health providers in cities like Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. Most insurance providers don’t pay for telemedicine appointments, Davisson said, which deters clinicians from offering the service. His bill would require insurance companies to pay out the same amount for telemedicine appointments as regular, face-to-face sessions with a counselor or psychiatrist. “Telemedicine is really expanding,” Davisson said. “There’s lots of opportunities there for getting more mental-health treatment to people.” On the federal level, a proposed House bill that would have brought sweeping changes to the nation’s mental-health system failed to get a vote, but U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks, who serves Greentown and Tipton, said she hopes to get the bill back onto the floor next year. The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act aimed to increase access to inpatient psychiatric care, clarify privacy rules for families of the mentally ill and promote alternatives to long-term inpatient care, such as court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment. The 135-page document was written and sponsored by Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy, who worked for three decades as a psychologist. Brooks, who will serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which would oversee the legislation, said she’ll push to get the bill back into the committee and work to see it become law. “This is really important legislation that we need to continue working on,” she said. “When you have bills that are this significant and this transformative to national systems, sometimes it can take a couple of sessions of Congress to change, and that can be frustrating. A lot of work has been done on this bill, and I want to help strengthen it.” Brooks said the bill wouldn’t just create more access for people suffering from a mental illness. In the end, she said, it would save money by keeping people out of jail, probation and other federally subsidized programs. “If we can put more funding into mental-health programing and mental-health systems, at the end of the day, it will save us money,” she said. “If people get to a stable place where they can maintain jobs and take care of themselves, as they want to do, that’s going to help decrease funding in other areas.” Carson Gerber can be reached at 765-854-6739,carson.gerber@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter @carsongerber1. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |