A recent series of articles by Post and Courier reporters on the state's mental health crisis demonstrates just how badly improvements are needed by the Department of Mental Health, one of eight state health care agencies. Mental health patients have to use hospital emergency rooms for acute care because of a lack of available psychiatric services. Mentally disturbed people who are in trouble with the law languish in jail, awaiting available space in mental health hospitals. Volunteer groups, such as Crisis Ministries, increasingly serve mentally ill people who are homeless. Mental health workers face rising caseloads that eventually force many from the profession.

Mental health care has shifted to the community without adequate state support. In some rural counties, the challenges are even more daunting because local resources and professional personnel available in cities are lacking.

The department's problems are clearly related to declining state revenues. The agency has seen allocations fall by $36.5 million in three years. The severity of DMH's fiscal needs was recognized by the Legislature last session when it gave the department a modest increase of $4.9 million while many other agencies took a cut in the tightest budget in years. It was better than a cut, for sure, but insufficient to close the gap between what the agency needs and what it has to operate.

The governor's plan envisions administrative savings that will make more money available for services. It generally follows a recommendation by the Legislative Audit Council to merge the state's eight health and human services agencies. In addition to Mental Health, they include Health and Human Services, Social Services, Health and Environmental Control, Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, Disabilities and Special Needs, Vocational Rehabilitation and the Commission for the Blind.

The merger would enable the state to be more responsive to those receiving services from more than a single agency, to ensure, in the words of the governor, that "people aren't treated like a ping-pong ball."

Merger would require extensive restructuring of state government, and the involvement and approval of the state Legislature. Restructuring won't resolve the present problems of DMH, but it does promise welcome improvements for the future. It should also help in the reform of the state's financially troubled Medicaid system.

DMH, however, needs immediate attention. The agency can't be expected to meet its responsibilities with declining budgets and a diminished work force.

Our series pointed out some encouraging developments locally, such as the mental health court that helps keeps mentally ill people out of jail, and the Crisis Stabilization Center, which provides acute care. And an agency spokesman tells us that a few of the 250 beds that have been cut for psychiatric patients statewide will be restored.

But the budget crunch limits the agency's capacity to deal comprehensively with its patient responsibilities, its crumbling physical facilities and assist overburdened caseworkers. DMH Director George Gintoli describes the mental health system as in "a state of crisis." State leaders have to provide support for the DMH's short-term problems as they advance a restructuring plan offering health agencies long-term solutions.