N.C. mental health program with troubled past is facing budget cuts

By Lynn Bonner lbonner@newsobserver.com Posted: Saturday, Jul. 04, 2009 RALEIGH State legislators intend to phase out a program that had become a symbol of waste and inefficiency in North Carolina's troubled system of mental health care. But some advocates for the mentally ill say that program has improved from its early days and now provides basic but vital services that might not be available otherwise. “It's not the same program,” said Jennifer Mahan, a lobbyist for the Mental Health Association in North Carolina. The program is known as “community support,” an array of services provided by a network of private companies working under contract with the state. It is on the chopping block as legislators try to assemble a state budget in a lean economy. The legislature has yet to approve a final budget, but House and Senate... [read full story]                    

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