I read in the paper this morning where President Bush has come out in support of the Domenici-Wellstone bill that would expand coverage of mental health benefits. This could make a great deal of difference in preventing homelessness. It also could go a long way in detering substance abuse. I don't think it would do much for the people who are already homeless as they either are unemployable or working in jobs where there isn't any health coverage.
A few years back I was on the board of a transitional housing facility located in SE Minneapolis. That was an eye-opening experience. Almost every client had some sort of mental illness or mental disability issue. I learned that this is true for a great number of the homeless on the city's streets. There is a huge stigma attached to being labelled as having a mental illness. A lot of the drinking that goes on is people self-medicating for treatable illness. And, treatment works -- it allows people to function once again as contributing members of society. According to the paper, businesses oppose this bill on a number of grounds, but it all boils down to it being too expensive. According to the article, a preliminary analysis says that it would only increase business' costs by .9%, a miniscule amount compared to what mental illness costs them in workplace productivity. Obviously, we have too many homeless people in the city and too few options that truly can help them get off the streets. True for most urban areas and even worse in better climates. Those of you who work for the larger businesses in Mpls. -- where do your employers stand on this? Wouldn't it be great if Minneapolis, as a progressive and enlightened community, came together around this issue because of the public policy impact it could have on our own streets? Where is mayor Rybak on this? He could lead a coalition of other large city mayors to lobby opponents of this bill. When I think of how this could affect our mean streets, I actually feel a ray of hope -- call it guarded optimism. How about it, RT -- can we make this part of the City's agenda in Washington? Barbara Nelson Burnsville -- Barbara Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] "We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human responsibility." - Albert Einstein, Physicist _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
