NEW HAMPSHIRE'S ELEPHANT

IS STILL IN THE ROOM

NH MAKES MONEY BY BROKEN PROMISES

REPORTED IN 2013: "The Department of Justice joined patients in suing the state for violating the Americans with Disability Act. The United States Department Of Justice has accused New Hampshire of warehousing patients in hospitals and turning jails into asylums, instead of treating people with mental health illnesses.

While reporting on the story for the Concord Monitor, Annemarie Timmins noted a study that said "26 percent of the state's adults, more than 253,500 people, have a mental illness."

REPORTED JANUARY 2016: "New Hampshire has been awarded $150 million over five years by federal Medicaid officials to expand access to mental health and substance abuse treatment services.

The additional federal Medicaid money results from the state seeking a Medicaid waiver under the Affordable Care Act to provide greater flexibility and to expand services eligible for federal matching money.

With the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services' approval, the state will receive up to $30 million a year for regional health care and community service provider networks for projects that expand the state's behavioral health system; integrate mental health, substance use treatment and primary care; and reduce health care costs for the state and federal government."

REPORTED IN 2017: "New Hampshire is now second only to Maine in the percentage of the population receiving Social Security Disability Income for mental illness, according to the latest research from the Urban Institute, released on Thursday.

Nationally, 1.76 percent of the population is receiving a monthly check for disability related to conditions like schizophrenia, mood disorders or depression.

In New Hampshire, the rate is nearly double at 3.18 percent, topped only by Maine, at 3.41 percent, according to Urban Institute researcher Jon Schwabish, who relied on data from the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources.

“It was shocking to me,” said Schwabish. “It’s not just that it’s higher; it’s much higher than elsewhere in the country.”

The large number of SSDI recipients for mental disorders in the New England states is not particularly new, Schwabish observed. 

Since 2001, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island saw increases in the number of people filing claims for mental disorders that far exceeded national averages.

But there is no conclusive research on why the New England states are such outliers when it comes to disability income for mental illness. New Hampshire demographics run contrary to the stereotype of a disability income recipient, with the exception of our aging population.

“New England states tend to have older, whiter and richer populations. Consequently, the question remains as to why the rate of disability income for mental disorders is so much higher for these states than for the rest of the country,” writes Schwabish in his report, titled, “Geographic Patterns in Disability Insurance Receipt: Mental Disorders in New England.”

"For now, the state is concentrating its efforts on community care. As part of a 2014 mental health settlement over a lawsuit alleging patients were needlessly institutionalized because they could not get mental health treatment in their own communities, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has proposed adding $3 million to the state budget. 

The funds would expand community-based response (including mobile units) to people in crisis, with the hope of avoiding hospitalization through treatment at home. But there’s no provision in the budget to increase the number of beds. It may take a similar lawsuit to bring that about. In addition, the proposal does not address the need for a secure facility, or at least a secured wing of the New Hampshire Hospital, that will be required to stop the much-criticized practice of placing civilly committed patients at the Secure Psychiatric Unit (THAT IS ONLY) in the Concord (men's) prison."