School funding solutions create other problems

School funding solutions create other problems
EDITOR:
Less than a month ago, headlines declared "Justices impose school-funding fix" and articles described the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars in spending cuts that would be needed to satisfy the lawsuit brought by a coalition of Ohio's school districts.
Stories detailed some of the effects that this ruling will have, but nowhere was there a mention of the mother in Lucas County who faces the possibility of not having a state psychiatric hospital available for her adult son who suffers with severe mental illness. Nor was there any suggestion of how communities across Ohio will deal with the problems that will be created when the Ohio Department of Mental Health closes four of the remaining nine state psychiatric hospitals because of budget problems that existed before the announcement of more budget cuts.
Homelessness and incarceration are fast becoming the only choices available for the most chronically mentally ill citizens of Ohio. As a result of 10 years of flat or declining levels of funding for the system that serves the mentally ill and their families in this state, thousands of people are not getting the medication and treatment services they need -- treatment that would help them function in their communities and be part of their families. Instead, the streets and the prisons and, increasingly the city morgues are where these vulnerable citizens end up.
The ruling by the Supreme Court does nothing to calm the fears of families and communities across the state. The toll of an increasingly underfunded system of care for mental health services shows itself in the form of families torn apart by devastating illness and the lack of services available to them as they try to get help for their loved ones. This new threat of further cuts only creates new despair and hopelessness.
The good news is the reality that treatment works when available.
Everyone acknowledges that treatment is more effective and less expensive to society than the alternatives of increased jail and prison populations and the effects of homeless persons wandering in Ohio's cities. Communities have structures in place to deal with the crisis, and the development of a new generation of medications makes successful treatment achievable.
But there is no hope if there is no progress. Closing state hospitals and asking communities to deal with this unserved population is a giant step backward in addressing Ohio's mental health needs.
JUDY BAUMLE
Columbus
X The writer is the president of the board of directors of Nami Ohio, an organization that advocates for the needs of the mentally ill and their families.
Patriotism means more than waving the flag
EDITOR:
It seems ironic that the display of & quot;patriotism & quot; in the form of a flag on the antenna of an automobile is negated by flagrant violation of the laws of the land to which patriotism is pretended.
It is easy to buy and display a flag, but if the test of sincerity comes, where will these people be? Are they going to Washington to & quot;picket for peace? & quot; Are they giving a bit more to their jobs to bolster our stumbling economy? Are they rededicating themselves to the laws of the land, however dissatisfying?
There are literally millions of us who are veterans of assorted wars and peace incidents who have displayed patriotism, but do not wear it on our sleeves. Some of us have displayed the flag long before the current fad.
Think on what real patriotism means.
GEORGE E. SUTTON
Poland
X The writer is in the Retired Naval Reserve.