Editorial: Mental health deserves better

THE state should make sure the mental health system gets the money it urgently needs to build a new Las Vegas emergency care center for the dangerously mentally ill.

The state Public Works Board is reviewing proposals for the 1999-2001 budget cycle from state agencies, requesting more than $600 million in construction. But spending constraints make it likely that there will be only $200 million available.

The administrator of the state mental health agency, Carlos Brandenburg, told the Public Works Board that it was imperative a new $6.9 million center be built because the existing 10-bed facility is running out of room. As the Sun's Cy Ryan reported Tuesday, the number of beds is inadequate and the facility cannot be nationally accredited because of its condition. In turn, the state can't get funding from Medicaid and Medicare for the treatment of patients. The division also is requesting about $16 million in other building and maintenance projects in Southern Nevada and more than $4 million for mental health centers in Northern Nevada.

Too often mental health care has been the neglected stepchild when competing with other constituencies for government funding. For instance, when Gov. Bob Miller faced a budget crisis in 1992, spending cuts nearly destroyed the state mental health program.

Since that time Miller and the Legislature have brought this agency back to nearly its old self. For instance, the 1997 Legislature decided to spend $177.5 million over the next two years on mental health care, a 48 percent increase and $10 million more than what Miller had sought.

While the infusion of funding was positive, it was more a reflection of a healthy economy in 1997 than a genuine commitment to adequate mental health care. The state budget was flush with excess revenues, meaning there was plenty of money to hand out. When extraordinary budget surpluses are available, mental health funding does reasonably well. But when state revenues are not rolling in as anticipated, as is happening this year, the trend has been to gut mental health at the expense of other more politically popular programs.

Although the Public Works Board makes recommendations on what projects to build, the governor has the final say on what is submitted to the Legislature. But before making the final budget requests, the governor elected this November should remember the dark days of the early 1990s when the state mental health system was nearly destroyed. The needs of mental health should not get buried once again.

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