Mental health community battles budget cuts

Mental Health Day at the State Capitol seemed to stick to a traffic theme. Those who came to rally in the Rotunda wore red shirt and held up stop signs, and chanted, "No detours! No detours!"

The point was to remind lawmakers that many mentally ill Minnesotans are on the road to recovery, but that highway to help is threatened by budget cuts. Among those who stepped up to the microphone was Ann Meyer of Saint Paul, who was first diagnosed 28 years ago with a mental illness.

"I'm finally working full-time," Meyer told KARE, "There was a point in my life I never thought I'd be able to work again because of my psychiatric diagnosis."

Now she advocating for others who share that diagnosis through the Consumer/Survivor Network, but when it comes to budget cuts she's concerned for her own well-being too. Ann said she fears her health care coverage, and other programs she's leaned on to live in the community will be lost to budget cuts.

"All of those pieces need to be in place for me to be well," she explained, "And if those are taken away from me and I can't see the doctor and I can't get my medication, I am not going to be well."

Young activists

Part of that is due to the stigma attached to mental illness in society. It's something five girls from South High School in Minneapolis want to see eradicated.

Zoe Prinds-Flash, Molly Donovan, Angela Freeman, Alix Hennen and Julia Lang all appeared at the Capitol rally to talk about their Silver Ribbon Campaign at South, designed to raise awareness and erase misleading stereotypes.

"What we hope for the future for our generation is a more accepting place," Julia Lang remarked, "A place where suffering from mental illness is not looked at as a character flaw or a sign of weakness."

Prinds-Flash told the group she's being treated for a mild anxiety disorder, but learned firsthand how critical access to quality care can be.

"I was misdiagnosed first with depression and then as bi-polar and finally the correct diagnosis," she said, "I was lucky to be able to afford the psychiatrist who diagnosed me, the therapist whom I saw, and the anti-depressants I was prescribed."

Sue Abderholden, who heads Minnesota's office of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill or N.A.M.I. pointed out that very few people can say they're not connected to someone dealing with some form of the disease.

"Maybe your mother, you father, your brother, your sister, your husband, your wife, your partner, your friend, your neighbor, your co-worker has a mental illness," Abderholden told the Rotunda crowd.

Tough choices

Lawmakers are hearing from a host of groups asking for a fair shake in the budget cutting process. The budget balancing plan proposed by the governor leans heaviest on health care for lower income people, and a good portion of those with chronic mental illnesses are also fighting poverty.

Representative Jim Abeler, an Anoka Republican, urged the group to do all they can to give their lawmakers specifics about which programs help them and which ones are threatened with cuts or elimination.

"Tell us your story," Abeler said, "Tell us how something worked, how the program you're in or a friend of your is in, how it helped them, how it kept them in their home or how it kept them working."

He said lawmakers will have tough decisions to make about spending on services that are "just nice to do" as opposed to those that are essential.

The rally was sponsored by the Mental Health Legislative Network, which is a coalition of 20 organizations across Minnesota working to upgrade mental health care.

By John Croman, KARE 11 News

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