MENTAL HEALTH REFORMS DISCUSSED

ASHEVILLE - Area residents who've faced drug or alcohol addiction, mental
illness or developmental disabilities gathered here Tuesday to review a
state plan to improve their access to timelier, more accountable services.

But among 180 people attending a forum held by the N.C. Department of
Health and Human Services, professionals who will help enact sweeping
reforms in the state system vastly outnumbered family members and
individuals who have clamored for more support.

Gayle and Tommy Wilson, whose 26-year-old son has a bipolar disorder, or
manic-depressive illness, were among those hoping the state's "Plan 2001:
Blueprint for Change" will press mental health providers to involve parents
more in a patient's treatment.

"We'd like to see a little more interaction between families and
caregivers,'' the Asheville mother said during the three-hour forum at
Mountain Area Health Education Center. "We want to know what we can do to
help our son live a successful life."

The Wilsons' son is one of roughly 1.4 million state residents with a
diagnosed mental illness, according to advocacy groups' reports. For his
sake and millions of others, N.C. Secretary of Health and Human Services
Carmen Hooker Buell invited public feedback Tuesday on the draft plan,
acknowledging pre-reform flaws in a system that has suffered from funding
inequities, barriers to access, insufficient accountability and waste.

"This plan will be a blueprint for the next five years for services at the
state and local level,'' Buell said, stressing that the draft is a work in
progress. "You will be an integral part to making sure this blueprint puts
us on a footing for . quality care in the 21st century."

Charged by the state General Assembly to help overhaul a beleaguered
system, Buell and her colleagues have, for the past year, widely sought
consumers' and professionals' suggestions about how to make sure
intervention is available to those who need it most - when they need it.

In Buncombe County, recovering heroin addict Bruce Grooms has, for one,
shared his recommendations on reforms to the public system.

"The treatment centers we have here for substance addiction are good, but
there is such a waiting period,'' said Grooms, a 41-year-old Asheville man
who waited nearly a month for an opening in a 28-day treatment facility
when he "hit rock bottom" from the addiction two years ago.

"Insurance won't recognize this as a disease, so there are hardly any
private treatment centers left in Western North Carolina,'' Grooms added,
suggesting reforms should build in incentives for private providers to help
meet the demand for substance abuse intervention. "That puts the whole
burden on the state."

The draft plan presented Tuesday will be delivered to the state Legislative
Oversight Committee, co-chaired by Sen. Steve Metcalf of Buncombe County,
in December.