DATE: Sunday, November 23, 1997             TAG: 9711200033

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial

                                            LENGTH:   71 lines

MENTAL HEALTH A TIMID REPORT

Members of a special commission studying human rights protections for state mental patients must have been raised on the very-Virginian maxim: ``If you can't say something nice, at least be vague.''

The group recently issued a report that avoids a broad indictment of the human rights system - even as it suggests, on close reading, that the problems are legion.

The danger in this genteel approach is that state lawmakers and the incoming Gilmore administration may take the report as an indication that change is not imperative.

James Lumpkin, chairman of the state mental health board, appeared to be falling into that trap. He greeted the report by saying: ``This is the beginning of change. . . . I don't think there will be any dramatic changes.''

Yet dramatic change is what is needed. Charles Osterhoudt, a Roanoke attorney who headed the human rights study, acknowledged as much in a ``personal postscript'' to the report. His comments apparently were intended only for the group but fell into the hands of the Associated Press. That's just as well, because it sums up the situation more forthrightly than the document.

``. . . if, as I believe, the true measure of a society is how well it cares for those in need of care, Virginia falls short. As one who has played a part in the establishment and operation of the Department's human rights system, I am constrained to say that it does not perform as well as it should. The key to insuring quality care, the system is underfunded, understaffed and its functions under-recognized.

``Money isn't the whole answer. There must also be commitment. But in the end, one reaps what one sows and gets what one is willing to pay for. As long as human rights for the sick and disabled are not adequately supported, they cannot be adequately guaranteed. Until that day comes, every citizen of this Commonwealth is at risk.''

The state mental health board and a legislative commission on mental health will receive the report. Both should keep Osterhoudt's message in mind as they review its tepid contents.

The problem is that too many of its conclusions state the obvious without taking the extra step of saying whether the current system meets proper standards or how the situation should be remedied.

Conclusion No. 1, for instance: ``The human rights protection and advocacy system must receive strong support from the DMHMRSAS (the mental health department), including funding, staffing and training sufficient to support the system.''

Well, of course. Only much later in the report in a single sentence do we get to the crux of the matter: Staff resources are ``inadequate.''

It is also possible to glean from the report, but only by reading between the lines, that (a) record-keeping by the human rights staff is so scanty as to make analyzing performance almost impossible, (b) human rights protections in community mental health programs and adult homes are even more paltry than in mental health facilities and (c) the human rights system needs to be distanced from the mental health department hierarchy.

These are daunting problems demanding immediate attention, not soft-pedaling or pussyfooting.

Most of the people who produced the report were citizens contributing their time and striving in a short period to pinpoint systemic problems in a huge bureaucracy.

But policy-makers who read their work must keep in mind that most committee members were also, in one way or another, part of the system they were being asked to review. They've produced a report that tiptoes around shortcomings and flinches from assigning blame.

This is a classic instance of the inbred way much state business in Virginia is conducted. Everyone winds up being friends at the end, but it can take generations before changes occur. And in this case, delay can literally mean the difference between life and death for those not at the table. Action to fix the system is needed now.

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