Advocates Fear Impact Of Mental Health Cuts

By: Ross Adams | WJTV
Published: March 01, 2010

» Comments | Post a Comment

Health care advocates are predicting dire consequences if Mississippi clinics and hospital that treat the mentally ill are forced to close.
Governor Haley Barbour’s 2011 budget includes a proposal to shut down state hospitals in Purvis and tupelo. Barbour also wants to close six crisis centers.
The governor says the closures would save the state $18 million dollars next year.
Bill Kehoe predicts dire consequences if the cuts are approved.
“It will create a huge problem in the delivery of care in how we humanely take care of our mentally ill," he says.
Kehoe is Executive Director of the Mississippi chapter of NAMI, or National Alliance on Mental Illness.
State lawmakers have already said they will not vote to approve the shutdown of the clinics and hospitals.