PARITY - Current health
insurance practices are discriminatory, evidenced by limited
coverage, punitive co-pays and restricted access to hospitalization
during acute episodes. Serious mental illnesses are given severely
limited coverage in most health plans. NAMI seeks full parity in
both private (individual and employer-based) and public (Medicare,
Medicaid and other government-sponsored) insurance coverage for
mental illnesses. Illinois has a weak mental health insurance parity
law which covers only nine mental illnesses and does not apply to
Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) or individual policies. This
law is also schedule to "sunset" on December 31, 2005. These
limitations must be fixed.
Additionally, NAMI is currently launching an all out effort to push
for Senate action on the national mental illness parity legislation
S 486/HR 953, known as the
Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act. Further
information on mental illness
parity legislation is available at the
NAMI National Website
HOUSING - NAMI Madison County
seeks increased access to permanent housing and appropriate supports
and services to allow persons with serious brain disorders to live
in the community. In cases where services are linked to housing,
such services should be flexible and based on an individualized plan
that involves meaningful consumer and family input. As an affiliate
of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-Illinois, NAMI Madison
County joins with other members of the
Mental Health Summit in
support of the Olmstead Initiative,
HB 3695, which establishes a
program to provide 1,000 individuals with mental illness or a
co-occurring disorder of mental illness and substance abuse with
appropriate residential and community-based support services, over
the course of a 5-year period. Currently, Illinois spends millions
of dollars to fund state-funded nursing homes called Institutions
for Mental Disease (IMD's). Moving persons with serious mental
illness out of Institutions for Mental Disease and providing them
with less expensive and more appropriate residential and community
based support services will save Illinois money.
PACT - Assertive Community
Treatment teams work and should continue to be supported. The terms
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Program of Assertive
Community Treatment (PACT) are often used interchangeably. PACT is
a service-delivery model that provides comprehensive, locally based
treatment to people with serious and persistent mental illnesses. It
provides highly individualized services directly to consumers. PACT
recipients receive the multidisciplinary, round-the-clock staffing
of a psychiatric unit, but within the comfort of their own home and
community. For more information on PACTs, go to
PACT: Program of Assertive Community
Treatment at the National Alliance on Mental
Illness' website.
PRESUMPTIVE MEDICAID ELIGIBILITY - Persons with mental
illness being discharged from jails, prisons and hospitals need
access to their medications in order to transition safely into the
community. As an affiliate of the National Alliance for the
Mentally Ill-Illinois, NAMI Madison County joins with other members
of the
Mental Health Summit in
their proposal to create a Task Force with a mandate of creating a
system designed to insure continuity in the administration of
psychotropic medications as persons move between various parts of
the state-funded mental health system.
CRIMINALIZATION OF PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS - Persons who have
committed offenses due to states of mind or behavior caused by a
brain disorder require treatment, not punishment. Rather than
clinically inappropriate incarceration in correctional institutions
which only contributes to exacerbated symptoms and recidivism, NAMI
Madison County seeks ways to turn around current counterproductive
practices toward the mentally ill in trouble with the law: (1) jail
diversion programs to direct nonviolent offenders away from
incarceration and toward treatment, (2) appropriate settings for
mentally ill persons convicted of crimes with psychosocial
rehabilitation and medication administered in settings separate from
the general prison population, (3) suitable discharge plans and
social services for the mentally ill who have completed sentences or
are eligible for parole including immediate restoration of Medicaid,
(4) instructional programs (CIT) that train police officers to
recognize symptoms and respond appropriately to people with mental
illness without use of unnecessary force, (5) training of
prosecutors and criminal court judges to help divert persons with
mental disorders to treatment rather than prison, and (6) training
of parole officers about the needs of the mentally ill and available
treatment resources and benefits.
Crisis
Intervention Team (CIT) The Illinois Law Enforcement
Training and Standards Board's initiative has been moving along at a
rapid pace. At this time, all of the pilot
sites have been selected and are at varying stages of development.
The Madison County CIT program includes the Alton Police Department,
East Alton Police Department, Glen Carbon Police Department, Granite
City Police Department, and the Madison County Sheriff's Department.
The law enforcement agencies are exceptionally committed in this
area, with three of the five departments having chiefs sitting on
the CIT task force. On January 20, 2004 a press conference was
held which generated much positive support for the CIT program,
which continues to surface in area newspapers.
Madison County held it's first training
program in
May 2004. Madison County's second CIT training is scheduled for the
week of March 7, 2005.
NAMI of Madison County, Chestnut Health Systems, Community
Counseling Center, and Gateway Regional Medical Center are involved
in the development of the program. A special "silver ribbon" ceremony honoring
officers from Alton, Granite City, Glen Carbon, Edwardsville,
Collinsville and the Madison County Sheriff's Department was
held
March 10, 2005. To learn more, please read -
An overview of Crisis Intervention Teams.
There are
more persons with serious mental illnesses in our state prisons than
in all of the public and private mental hospitals in Illinois
combined. Indeed there at least 6,000 persons with mental illness in
our state prisons. There are also more than 1,500 persons with
mental illness in our county jails. The mental health services in
our State prisons and county jails are inadequate. There are few
services available for mentally ill individuals leaving prisons and
jails and a lack of coordination with the community mental health
system. As an affiliate of the National Alliance for the Mentally
Ill-Illinois, NAMI Madison County supports the Mental Health
Summit's proposals for making the mental health and criminal
justice systems work better together: (1) assign responsibility for
mental health services in state prisons to the Office of Mental
Health; and (2) provide new targeted state funding for persons with
mental illnesses who are placed on probation or supervision and
those leaving prisons and jails.
Click here for more information on
these Mental Health Summit proposals.
Read more about the
PUBLIC POLICY PLATFORM of
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) at the NAMI
National Website.
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Policies
