Speech given on 12/16/2004 at Ramsey County Citizen's Advisory Council Legislative Breakfast
Good Morning, and thank you for being willing to come for this event. My name is Charlie Mishek, and I represent the Chemical Health Committee of the Citizens Advisory Council. The main focus of our committee has been to provide information to the board in areas relating to chemical health, abuse and dependency, and its larger impact on the county. It is well known and yet bears periodic restating, that chemical health issues have an impact on all areas of human services, not only treatment, but corrections, social services, homelessness, employment, and child protective services. How are the children? Unfortunately, children often bear life long scars from growing up in a home where there is chemical abuse or dependency. With the growth of abuse of Methamphetamine statewide, and, specifically, in Ramsey County itself, there are significant ramifications for those who have to address the children caught up in this particular drug world. The manufacture of the drug in homes where children are being raised exposes them to toxic chemicals that the authorities themselves only handle garbed in hazardous material suits. We don't yet know the long term impact of being around these chemicals. We do know that there appears to be a higher out of home placement rate for children coming out of these situations, which coincides with the lower recovery rates among meth users. But this is only one challenge. We have seen the funding for chemical health services get increasingly restricted, to the extent that there are people who cannot get access to treatment unless they lose everything first. This puts entire families at risk. While innovative things are being done to address the every more complex problems persons coming to treatment present, for example, mental health problems in addition to their chemical health problems, programs are finding it difficult to ensure that everyone who comes to their doors will get the care they need. We continue to see use among adolescents grow, yet services struggle to find ways to provide the kind of care needed in times of increasingly restricted funding streams. While the recent news about the impending state budget deficit seems to point the finger at increasing spending in healthcare as one of the main culprits, it is not in the area of behavioral health that these increases have occurred. Coordination of services between schools, treatment providers, corrections, medical providers, and employers remains challenging, and involves much effort. But the pay off is a better outcome in the effort to address chemical health problems. Our committee hopes that you will bear this in mind as you face the difficult legislative tasks ahead. ******************************************************************** Ren�e Jenson Como _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [email protected] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
