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April 3, 2022Department of Mental Health restructuring proposal is ill advised, board chairs argue
Don’t restructure DMH
On behalf of the chairs of the boards of the Department of Mental Health’s (DMH) 16 mental health centers, I write to urge that this department be removed from Senate Bill 2 which would divide the functions of DHEC into separate agencies, making DMH a “division” of a new agency: the Department of Behavioral and Public Health.
Supporters of S2 cite that DHEC is too large, yet combining DHEC’s public health functions with DMH and the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services would create an agency much larger than DHEC already is. Moreover, the new agency would regulate the hospitals and nursing homes that DMH currently operates.
We support any proposal that improves services for people with mental illness; however, a 2021 study of the state’s public health, environmental, and behavioral health areas, comprising more than 50 experts, did not recommend restructuring existing agencies to improve services.
South Carolina, like the entire country, is experiencing an unprecedented need for mental health services. In the midst of this crisis, a massive restructuring of services and the disruption it will cause will not provide better mental health care for South Carolinians, and may in fact cause harm.
