What's good about Wisconsin?

I was watching a documentary that aired on Frontline on PBS called "Released". It was about the state of mental health care pertaining to people who are being released from the criminal justice system. Since the move to deinstitutionalize mental health care there are more people in prisons all across the US who have severe and persistent mental illness. It's a sad fact that while incarcerated, they are getting the best mental health care they have ever gotten and that's not saying much. At least the prisons do provide access to treatment and medications which keeps the individual healthy enough to serve out their sentences. It's also a sad fact that the person learns very little about how to manage their mental health so when released into the community without adequate supports they stop taking their medications and usually end up reoffending within a few months.

Working in community mental health services, I am all too aware of the lack of funding and available resources for this population of people. Often, they are released to homeless shelters with little or no insight as to how to access what little community services are available. Once their time is up, they don't even have the benefit of a probation officer to help them. They're on their own - homeless, penniless and ill. It's a combination for disaster. Most of them have become serial offenders and more often than not their crimes are the result of their illness. Full on delusional state of mind led them to do whatever it was that landed them in prison. And, surprisingly, many of their crimes are non-violent in nature. This is not the picture the public gets from sensationalized cases like the Newton shooter where we are led to believe that someone with a mental illness is a mindless killer.

Housing the mentally ill is not always an easy answer. As with all public resources, funding for supervised housing is limited to non-existent. Direct care givers are paid less than people making burgers at McDonalds. And, trying to find a psychiatrist that will accept Medicaid is like finding a needle in a haystack. Nearly impossible because the state reimburses doctors far below any other insurance so they only take a few on their patient load and the rest are left to punt.

Here in Wisconsin we have  new program and it's a good one. We have something called a Behavioral Health Court. This is a special court system that works with social workers to identify those people who get arrested who might not have offended if they had been receiving proper mental health treatment. In essence, they are sentenced to treatment in the community. They receive case management and medication monitoring. They can get counseling and even someone to assist them with finding and maintaining safe and affordable housing. As long as they comply with treatment and do well, they remain free. And you know what? It works! People get the treatment they need and they gain a higher quality of life. They, in essence, become human beings who have value and can be a productive member of our society. This is what Wisconsin gets right!