Treatment for the mentally ill

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The idea is for nonviolent mentally ill people to get treatment rather than taking up valuable jail space that should be reserved for violent prisoners. For the mentally ill, appropriate treatment may go much further toward discouraging crime and saving money than incarceration.

The program, establishing a "mental health court," has been proposed by Probate Court Judges Ted Sauvain and Debora Faulkner and has been successful — based on relatively low recidivism rates — in Charleston County. Mental health courts also operate in Marlboro, Richland and Anderson counties.

It would be far better, however, for the state to reach out more effectively to the mentally ill before they commit crime. Most mentally ill patients are not dangerous, as long as they receive proper medication and counseling. But the state's Mental Health Department has been devastated by repeated budget cuts, and the unfortunate fact is that more patients will likely commit crime and jails will continue to fill up with the mentally ill. It's a telling sign that law enforcement leaders in the state have joined with doctors and other advocates in protesting repeated cuts to Mental Health.

The effectiveness of this department, which helps some of our state's most vulnerable residents, has been compromised by the elimination of 1,021 positions since 2001. Because of layoffs, the caseloads of some mental health counselors have increased to an almost unmanageable 200-to-1.

In what has become an annual routine, Gov. Mark Sanford this year has proposed cutting the department by another $12 million, according to the department.

The Mental Health Department has made strides in helping to steer the mentally ill toward treatment and away from hospital emergency rooms. But with inadequate state funding, those patients may turn again to emergency rooms — a very costly way to treat the mentally ill. Those costs drive up all other health-care expenses, including insurance premiums.

A cigarette tax hike would help mend the state's frayed mental health system. As the General Assembly takes up the state budget, lawmakers this session should strive to rebuild a Mental Health Department they have neglected for the past four years.