Good editorial in today’s News & Record: “Clearing out The Block”:
Greensboro police last week stepped up loitering enforcement and effectively cleared the place known as “The Block.” Just like that.
Read more on N&R Editorial: Clearing out The Block…
Be sure to read Lorraine Ahearn’s News & Record article, “Benches highlight a bigger problem”, which begins like this:
“The location of artistic benches, which were removed from the Downtown Greenway on Friday after neighbors complained, looked good on paper but ignored some basic urban topography. Just a stone’s throw from where the benches were removed, amid complaints that they drew drunken and lewd behavior, sits ‘The Block.’ At the southwest corner of Eugene and Lee streets, at the entrance to HealthServe clinic and Greensboro Urban Ministry’s night shelter, this stretch of sidewalk has been a magnet for loitering, drugs and prostitution for 20 years….”
The benches were never the problem, so removing them won’t solve it. The problem on the block is primarily addiction. People drink there, and buy and smoke pot and crack. And where you find crack, you find dealers and prostitutes.
Read more on Bilbro benches gone, next target: homeless on the block?…
Betty Ann Scott stayed at our church’s women’s emergency shelter for a while this winter. She had medical problems, mental illness and an addiction disorder. Shelter staff and volunteers reached out for help for Betty Ann. At a special dinner marking the close of the winter shelter this past week, residents paused to remember Betty Ann, who died shortly after leaving Grace’s shelter and being placed in a community-based residential program for the homeless mentally ill. The News & Record’s Lorraine Ahearn writes about mental health reform, Betty Ann’s death, and the system that failed to protect her:
Read more on Homeless, addicted, mentally ill: The death of Betty Ann Scott…
Reading about the death of Steven Sabock, a patient at Cherry Hospital, a state-funded psychiatric hospital in Goldsboro, N.C., leaves me nauseated, disgusted, outraged and heartbroken:
“…The hospital’s security video recorded Sabock’s care from April 28, when he choked on his medicine while a nurse stood by without helping him, and through his day without food until his death from a heart problem. Health care technicians, according to the report, are seen on the recording watching television through the night, playing cards, and talking on a cell phone while they were in the room with Sabock.
Read more on Staff ignores dying patient at Cherry Hospital…
Members of the NC DHHS staff will be on hand to share information and answer questions about the state’s mental health reform efforts.
Wednesday, Nov. 29th
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
GTCC, Jamestown Campus
In the auditorium of Percy Sears Applied Technology Center
Parking in front, in Lot D
Read more on Public Meeting on State Mental Health Reform Tonight!…
Lorraine Ahearn in the News & Record, 11/26/06:
“At age 27, severely disabled mentally and physically because she once stopped breathing as an infant, Emily Massengill today has almost everything she needs.”
Read more on Mental Health Reform: Breaking What Works…
In September, I posted about the 10,000+ patients in Western North Carolina who were losing their mental health services as part of our state’s mental health “reform.” This news followed an earlier series of reports in the Winston Salem Journal about that community’s struggles with mental health reform. Today the News & Record reported that the state auditor’s office will undertake a broad investigation of North Carolina’s mental health system.
Read more on State Auditor’s Office Will Investigate Mental Health System…
Some of Western North Carolina’s mental health patients could be left without care in October when the region’s largest provider closes its doors, the company’s chief executive said today.
Will Callison, chief executive officer of New Vistas – Mountain Laurel, said people who rely on state funds to pay for their mental health care instead of Medicare, Medicaid or insurance might have no where to turn after Oct. 31.
Read more on 10,000+ In Western NC Losing Mental Health Services…
From today’s News & Record:
“The… Mental Health Association in Greensboro [says], ‘When you cut mental health services, problems erupt elsewhere.’ I agree. However, none of the changes in Guilford should reduce services.” — Mike Mosely, Director, NCDHHS
An interesting choice of words, Mr. Mosely: “None of the changes in Guilford should reduce services.” Indeed they shouldn’t. But they already have, and they will continue to do so.
Read more on TruthWatch: Mental Health Reform…
On April 9th, I was appointed to represent HPCGC as a member of our local Task Force to End Homelessness, which is charged with developing the Greensboro/High Point/Guilford County Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. Below is a summary from my notes of the presentation given to the Task Force by Martha Are, Homeless Policy Specialist for NC DHHS. She addressed these questions:
Read more on Understanding the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness…