AUGUSTA - Assistant House Majority Leader Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, introduced a measure Tuesday that would provide the treatment, housing and support necessary to help Mainers struggling with mental health conditions and substance use disorders stay out of the criminal justice system and emergency rooms.
"Maine is suffering from a mental health emergency. Too many people with serious and persistent mental health conditions and substance use disorders are stranded in Maine's prisons and county jails, where this population has found themselves all but living when they're not in homeless shelters or outside on our streets. This bill would help solve this travesty by creating pathways to better lives for the people who have found themselves in this cycle of crisis," said Talbot Ross during Tuesday's public hearing on the measure before the Legislatures Health and Human Services Committee.
LD 1968 would increase the number of community-based intensive case managers and Assertive Community Treatment Teams, known as ACT Teams, to support individuals with serious and persistent mental health conditions and substance use disorders. It proposes to create at least 50 new housing units over the next four years that would provide permanent, supportive housing with wrap-around services. The measure would also direct policymakers to examine and remove barriers to admission to crisis care and require the Maine Department of Health and Human Services ensure that telehealth behavioral health services are available in Maine's jails.
"The costs to society are huge when we allow people to lose their housing, jobs and family and enter the criminal justice and homelessness system because they are suffering from a behavioral health crisis. Too many people are all alone dealing with significant, untreated mental health conditions," said Rep. Victoria Morales, D-South Portland. "It is a moral and economic imperative that we fund the steps recommended in this legislation so we can stop spending millions of taxpayer dollars on jails, ERs and shelters when it is one-quarter of the cost to provide supportive housing and behavioral health services and it shuts the revolving door for 95% of those receiving these services."
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 5.3% of adults in Maine have serious mental health conditions and 6.4% of adults reported heavy alcohol use. An overwhelming majority, 91.4%, of those meeting the criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence did not receive treatment. Supporters of the bill say a lack of access to treatment has many individuals repeatedly cycling in and out of emergency departments and incarceration.
"For years, Maine has been seeing the same people languishing and ricocheting through our criminal justice system, mental health system, substance use disorder system, and our homeless system. Our success stabilizing this population will save all our systems money, and more importantly, will open the door to better the lives of each person," said Cullen Ryan, executive director of Community Housing of Maine, to lawmakers during Tuesday's public hearing. "Mainers are paying to sustain this group of people in emergency shelters, jails and hospitals. We could pay far less to have them stable in housing with the supports necessary for success. LD 1968 would accomplish exactly that."
The Health and Human Services Committee will hold a work session on the proposal Friday, March 4, at 10 a.m.
Contact:
Jackie Merrill [Talbot Ross, Morales], c. 812-1111