Joint mental health, recovery board brings myriad benefits

Mahoning County took one progressive leap this week toward more effectively treating its population of mentally ill and drug- and alcohol-dependent individuals, while simultaneously shrinking bureaucracy and boosting fiscal responsibility.

That trifecta results from the launch of the 18-member Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board, created by the merger of the county mental-health and county alcohol- and drug-addiction services boards. The consolidated board met for the first time Monday.

As Duane Piccirilli, its executive director, said last year in describing the potential of the consolidated agency, “The real winners in this are the taxpayers and the consumers of Mahoning County because there’s going to be one centralized, planning, funding and evaluation system for mental health and recovery.”

We agree. This consolidation, in the planning stages the past three years, sets a fine example of responsive government in action.

First, formation of the dual-service agency makes eminently good sense on several practical fronts. Many of the functions and duties of mental health and addiction treatment overlap. The two conditions quite often are inextricably linked. The merger therefore erases unnecessary and costly duplication of services.

The consolidation also trims some of the fat off of public-sector bureaucracy by creating one administrative hierarchy instead of two. In addition, both former agencies reduced staff in preparation for the merger, and office rental costs have been reduced. All spell savings for tax-weary residents.

Such benefits are common to most all consolidations, mergers and sharing of services among public agencies, for which we’ve long been staunch advocates. This particular consolidation, however, stands out for its potential to significantly improve services to its target population through streamlining and creation of a one-stop help center.

STRONG LINK

Evidence continues to mount on the strong and interdependent relationship between mental illness and alcohol- and drug-dependency. For example, the National Bureau of Economic Research reports that people diagnosed with a mental health disorder at some point in their lives are responsible for 69 percent of all alcohol consumed in this country and 84 percent of all cocaine ingested in this country.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, drugs and alcohol often serve as a source of misguided self-medication for those with mental illnesses. A teenager suffering from depression turns to marijuana to ease the strain. A woman with severe social anxiety drinks a few too many cocktails in an attempt to fit in. A man who battles panic attacks seeks comfort from a bottle of Xanax.

Unfortunately, such self-medication typically ends in worsening the very emotional struggles the troubled individual was trying to treat, sometimes with fatal results in overdoses, accidents and suicides.

The new dual-pronged board has potential to lessen the likelihood of such tragedies through adoption of what some call the “whole health” approach to treatment. Carolyn Givens, director of the Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic that provides a spectrum of treatment for alcohol- and drug-addicted individuals, said such an approach has been needed in our community for years.

As the new centralized mental health and recovery agency begins its transition toward more coordinated treatment for one of the most vulnerable population groups among us, we wish it success in its laudable mission of easing the anguish that the one-two punch of mental illness and drug dependency too often inflicts.