RELATED: A lot of people who need of mental health treatment end up in county jail. A new diversion program aims to change that, and the Grand Traverse County sheriff hopes it expands. Read more.
Mental health care in northern Michigan can be difficult to access.
Six months ago, state lawmakers heard weeks of testimony during a subcommittee about the state’s struggling mental health system and a critical lack of providers. That lack is especially pronounced here in northern Michigan.
Now, advocates are waiting for a report that was supposed to come out of those hearings months ago.
Those testimonies were heard last summer and wrapped up in August at the Subcommittee on Public Health and Food Security, chaired by state Rep. Matthew Bierlein (R-Vassar).
“Everyone's wondering why it's taking so long,” said Kate Dahlstrom, president of National Alliance Against Mental Illness (NAMI) Grand Traverse. “They went through all these hearings — did all this note taking and work — and then want to get a report out.”
Testimony from the subcommittee revealed the state’s lack of psychiatric beds often led people to end up at local emergency rooms or be picked up by law enforcement, where they ended up in jail instead of getting mental health care.
Mental health advocates in Michigan have said the state has been underserved for years and data compiled by NAMI showing that Michiganders are 1.5x more likely to be forced out-of-network for mental health care than primary care.
This can be even worse for young people experiencing mental health problems in northern lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, which has zero dedicated inpatient psychiatric beds for children.
Dahlstrom said the report remains important as it will serve as a guide for what the state needs to do next.
“The goal of those hearings was to identify if there was a need. And they clearly did that,” said Dahlstrom.
In an email to northern Michigan mental health advocates, Stone Kelly, the legislative director for state Rep. Bierlein, said his office has been ready to publish the subcommittee report for months now.
“However, the Speaker’s office has had our policy and legal counsel continue reviewing it,” wrote Kelly. “Our hope is that they may be trying to work something into this year’s budget related to the findings, but at this point that remains uncertain.”
Kelly wrote to IPR and said the report should be released this Friday.
IPR reached out to local lawmakers over the last week. Neither state Rep. John Roth (R-Interlochen) nor state Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) got back to us in time for this story.
State Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City) said that when the report comes out, she believes it is going to paint a stark picture.
“I think that a report like that going public will hit a nerve for a growing number of people in this state who are dealing with this themselves, who have loved ones, families, staff at their workplace who are dealing with it,” Coffia told IPR.
Coffia also expressed frustration about a bipartisan lack of urgency to address the state’s mental health crisis. Part of that reluctance, she says, is because things like pediatric beds cost money.
“Everything costs money. You have to be able to pay for it,” said Coffia. “And when the state — whether it's a Democratic governor or Republican Speaker or whoever it might be — when the state is not willing to prioritize this, people do not get the care that they need. That is a real problem.”
