Beware mental health care privatization

Ginny Singer, Las Vegas

Wednesday, June 11, 2008 | 2:04 a.m.

I am a psychiatric nurse practitioner for a local government agency, and I am responding to an editorial in Sunday’s Las Vegas Sun that stated privatizing mental health services would shortchange Nevadans who need help. In my opinion, privatizing all or part of mental health care in this state is all about money and nothing about patient care.

Partial privatization is illogical. Partial privatizing would be a disaster because a consistent network is imperative in mental health care. Privatizing would result in a breakdown in communication and take the control and responsibility from the state.

Our illustrious governor and other poorly informed officials will lead the public to believe that privatizing is the best option for mental health care in Nevada. One needs to look only to states where privatizing of mental health has failed miserably, such as North Carolina and Michigan.

In North Carolina an increase in the overcrowding of patients and a shortage of workers were the result of privatization. North Carolina officials are questioning the integrity and profit motives of the companies involved in the privatization of mental health care. In Michigan, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill cited the privatization of the state’s mental health services as “a key reason for a dysfunctional, inefficient and unaccountable system.”

Pennsylvania and Indiana scrapped plans to privatize their mental health care systems. Both uncovered that privatizing would cost the citizens more money than keeping the system under strict control of the state. We should all ask whether turning the care of our most vulnerable over to the lowest bidder is the right thing to do.