Editor,
Mental health clinics provide help to a large aggregate of mentally ill patients with severe psychotic conditions. Many of these patients require more than one anti-psychotic medication to become or remain stable.
In November 2006, Gov. Bill Richardson - along with ValueOptions, the mental health administrator for Medicaid in New Mexico - changed stipulations set out in the ValueOptions mandate by allowing only one anti-psychotic medication per patient. Such a stipulation helps ValueOptions financially more than it helps provide medications for those in need.
It is essential to understand that many of these patients may become a danger to themselves or others without appropriate medications. Most of these patients have been on their medications for a long time and have been stabilized. With many patients, doctors have been forced to alter or reduce the medications that have kept them stable. Many of these people are delusional, sexually inappropriate and/or violent without their proper combination of anti-psychotic
medications.
The end result is patients flooding emergency rooms, being hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals or ending up in penitentiaries, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. While ValueOptions' approach may be based on its clinical research that one anti-psychotic is adequate, the reality remains unchanged - these patients may require more than one anti-psychotic medication to become stabilized.
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It is important to remember that the nurses and doctors are now spending more time trying to get prior authorizations for their patients, which are often denied, than actually helping their patients.
Lack of knowledge and understanding portrayed by officials will eventually lead to the demise of these patients. These potential tragedies can be avoided if officials focus on patient care rather than the short-term benefits of saving money.
Many will remember the tragedy that occurred last year at a motorcycle shop and elsewhere in Albuquerque, when a psychotic patient had gone off his medication. The deaths that resulted were senseless and should serve as a reminder of the importance of providing proper medication to those afflicted with these conditions.
Douglas McGraw
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