A state commission is suggesting more resources and better communication would improve mental health services in Michigan.
As The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta reports, the commission just released its recommendations Tuesday.
The last big overhaul of the mental health system wrapped up in the early 1990s when most of the state’s psychiatric hospitals were closed.
This commission convened by Governor Rick Snyder found there are still barriers to helping people with mental health issues live productively.
“By solving problems earlier and being more effective, and helping people reach more independent lives, they’ll have less dependence on the government in the first place,” he says.
Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley led the commission.
“So their quality of life goes up and their dependence on the government goes down,” he says.
And Calley says that means taxpayers over the longer term would shoulder less in corrections, welfare, and healthcare costs.