THE PROGRAM
ON PUBLIC LIFE
WWW.SOUTHNOW.ORG NOVEMBER2007 NUMBERS
FERREL GUILLORY
Director
gulllorytSunc.edu
THAD BEYLE
Associate Director
beyle@emall. unc.edu
HODDING CARTER. Ill
Leadership Fellow
hodding car ter (a unc.edu
KENDRA DAVENPORT COTTON
Assistant Director Jor Programs
kendradctS.unc.edu
ANDREW HOLTON
Assistant Director Jor Research
holton@unc.edu
D. LEROY TOWNS
Research Fellow
dltowns@email.unc.edu
THE PROGRAM ON PUBLIC LIFE
is a non-partisan organization devoted to
serving the people of North Carolina and
the South by informing the public agenda
and nurturing leadership.
To receive an electronic version or to
subscribe to the printed version, send
your name and email address
to southnow@unc.edu.
The Program on Public Life is part of the
Center for the Study of (he American
South at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill.
Carolina Context was printed with the
use of state funds. 1200 copies of this
public document were printed at a cost
of $1,583. or $1.32 a copy.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
North Carolina has entered a critical period in
determining the future of its mental health policy
and services. A new hospital will open soon in
Butner. The future of the historic Dorothea Dix
facility is being debated. Two of the four state
hospitals recently had their Medicare-Medicaid
accreditation threatened.
Recentreports by the North Carolina Institute
of Medicine and consultants to the Department
of Health and Human Services recommended
significant changes in the state’s culture and
capacity for treating the mentally ill. A legislative
committee chaired by Sen. Martin Nesbitt and
Rep. Verla Insko has issued its own report, and
Governor Easley has indicated that mental health
reform will take its place as a high priority in his
final year of office.
Now is the time for ideas. In the spirit of
contributing ideas to the current deliberations
over mental health policy, this Carolina Context
offers an analysis and a policy option.
This white paper draws on the research and
experience of two faculty members at the UNC
School of Nursing. Dr. Linda S. Beeber has taught
and practiced psychiatric nursing for more than 3 5
years. Her research has focused on ways to
expand access to health carein underserved areas.
Dr. Victoria Soltis-Jarrett is Clinical Associate
Professor and the coordinator ofthe MSN program
in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing. She has
practiced in psychiatric nursing for 23 years, both
in the USA and in Australia.
While recognizing that the delivery of
mental health care is a complex enterprise with
interlocking pieces, the scholar-nurses suggest
ways to target underserved segments of North
Carolinians suffering from mental illness and
describe how expanding the supply of well-
trained nurse-practitioners could extend and
enhance community-based services.
The development of this Carolina Context
also benefited from the advice and guidance
of Thomas J. Bacon, program director of
the Area Health Education Centers; Karen
Stallings, an associate director with AHEC, and
Erin Fraher, director of health professions data
system at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health
Services Research.
— FERREL GUILLORY
Director. Program on Public Life
THE STATE OF MENTAL HEALTH CARE
IN NORTH CAROLINA
For more information about North Carolina’s mental health system and about the current
challenges of reform, please explore the following sources with links on our web site:
* Thompson, Christina and Anthony Broskowski, Long-Range Plan for Meeting Mental Health.
Developmental Disabilities & Substance Abuse Services Needs for the State of North Carolina,
December 12, 2006
* North Carolina Institute of Medicine, Providers in Demand: North Carolina's Primary Care and
Specialty Supply, June 2007, 82-86.
* Fraher, Erin, Marvin Swartz, Katie Gaul, “The Supply and Distribution of Psychiatrists in
North Carolina: Pressing Issues in the Context of Mental Health Reform.”
* Jackson, M. Paul and Phoebe Zerwick, “Breakdown: A Crisis in Mental-Health Care,”
Winston-Salem Journal, December 4, 2005.
* Swartz, Marvin and Joseph Morrissey, "Mental Health Care in North Carolina: Challenges
on the Road to Reform,” North Carolina Medical Journal, Sept/Oct 2003, 64:5, 205-10.
