Region lacking in health services

An Eastern Panhandle group is requesting additional funding for behavioral care.

By Christina Marnik / Journal Staff Writer

Editor's note: This is the third article in a six-day series that will focus on public policy recommendations of the Eastern Panhandle Health and Human Services Collaborative, which is convened by the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle. Wednesday's article will feature the following priority issue: connecting people to the services they need through WV211

MARTINSBURG - Jacqueline Columbia said she believes that everyone should have access to the behavioral health care that they need, but a lack of resources in the Eastern Panhandle is hindering that chance for many residents.

That is why Columbia, the director of clinical and community services for the Board of Child Care, presented information about this issue at the second annual Public Policy Forum recently held by the Eastern Panhandle Health and Human Services Collaborative. Speakers at the breakfast session outlined recommendations for legislative action on five key issues, which range from affordable housing, to disaster preparedness, to self sufficiency and increasing access to behavioral health care. The recommendations were presented to a group that included community leaders and government officials.

"Our purpose is to ensure that a continuum of care of behavioral health services is available in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties," Columbia said. "What we asked from that meeting of legislators, is that they advocate for the Eastern Panhandle."

The Collaborative is a group of more than 40 organizations that come together to identify and develop solutions to problems affecting the people of the Eastern Panhandle. Subcommittees are formed to address specific issues, such as those addressed at its meeting on Dec. 3.

"I think that the behavioral health group is tackling a huge issue and they are doing everything that they can," said Trina Bartlett, director of community impact with the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle. "I think it's such a huge issue that the starting point is increased awareness."

This issue is so important because people who can't fight for themselves are the ones in need here, said Columbia, who added mental health problems left untreated can lead to increases in fatalities, incarcerations, suicides, teenage pregnancy, excessive employee absenteeism, underemployment, unemployment and higher school dropout rates.

"If you see somebody in a wheelchair, it's easy to see what their issues would be," she said. "For behavioral health, you can't see it. They're kind of a forgotten group and they're very vulnerable, and they don't advocate for themselves."

The collaborative began advocating increased access to behavioral health services almost two years ago, when members realized that the Eastern Panhandle wasn't receiving nearly enough funding. West Virginia has more than one million people throughout the entire state, with 9 percent of the population in the Eastern Panhandle. However, the region gets a significantly smaller amount of funding than the rest of the state, said Columbia, who isn't sure of the exact percentage of funding the Eastern Panhandle receives.

"There's a big misconception, because we're heavily populated, we have a lot of resources, and we don't," she said. "There's a big misconception that we're wealthy in the Eastern Panhandle, and we're not."

The focus group, which is made up of about 20 members, is not asking the state Legislature to provide a specific amount of money but an amount proportionate to the number of people in the Eastern Panhandle. It is also asking for the ability to restructure or expand existing services without the approval it currently needs from the state Health Care Authority, a governmental organization.

"Our policymakers need to start thinking that behavioral health care is just as important as any other type of health care," Bartlett said. "Meeting the behavioral health care needs of individuals and families is providing them with health care."

Columbia, this region's problem with affordable and accessible behavioral health care began in the mid 1990s, when Medicaid, the primary source of funding for mental health, substance abuse and mentally retarded/developmentally disabled services restructured how it handled these programs. This resulted in many of the programs being discontinued or restricted.

"The changes in funding created a lot of service gaps, so now there's unmet needs," she said. "That's what the behavioral health work group is, to ensure that we have a continuum of care here."

Since last week's breakfast, Columbia has spoken with Delegate Jonathan Miller R-Berkeley, who hopes to help the group achieve its goals.

Miller said that funding will be hard to come by because the state doesn't have a lot of money at this time. However he is more hopeful that the behavioral health care system can be reorganized so that individual programs will be able to control what programs they offer and how they expand.

"The good thing is we're probably going to take more steps toward that," Miller said. "It won't be anything major, but it will be some small steps to help out the behavioral health care providers in this region and throughout the whole state."

The group members hope changes will be made in Charleston this legislative session, which opens on Feb 11.

"This is a hot item this year for the legislative session," Columbia said. "I think this year we're going to see a lot of different things happening."

- Journal staff writer Christina Marnik can be reached at (304) 263-8931, ext. 182 or at cmarnik@journal-news.net.