Columbus Dispatch. January 4, 2023.
Editorial: New BMH-GT unit a welcome addition to help address mental health
Mental illness continues to be an elusive target in our nation, as the data shows. A Mental Health America study found that 21 percent of Americans experience some form of mental illness, yet just 45 percent of that group ever receive any treatment for it.
Mississippi’s efforts to treat those with mental illness leaves much to be desired, with the Department of Justice and other groups filing lawsuits against the state for failure to provide adequate access to mental health treatment as far back as 2011.
The state’s mental health department continues to be under federal oversight.
Yet there is progress being made, especially in one area of mental illness — treatment for dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease.
As the youngest Baby Boomers approach retirement age there are an estimated 6.2 million Americans aged 65 or older who have been diagnosed with dementia/Alzheimer’s. As medical care continues to extend life expectancy, the number of Americans suffering from these forms of mental illness is expected to more than double by 2060, unless a cure is found. In 2019, the last year for which statistics are available, 121,499 Americans died of dementia/Alzheimer’s, according to the National Library of Medicine.
For most of us, this data is not an abstraction. Almost every family has an elderly relative who has suffered from these mental illnesses and while we wait for a cure, the best we can hope for is to mitigate the effects of these illnesses through the latest, still evolving, treatments.
In a state ranked near the bottom for access to mental health care in general, we are pleased to note the arrival of the Golden Triangle’s first geriatric psychiatric care unit, which will provide elderly patients better access to care associated with aging, including dementia/Alzheimer’s.
Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle officials announced the creation of the new unit this week. It will include eight beds and the hospital expects to add 25 staff to work in the unit.
Until now, the closest geriatric psych unit was located in Jackson, but the growing demand of this kind of care made securing those beds extremely difficult.
Baptist officials haven’t provided a date at which the unit will start treating patients, but the presence of a unit devoted entirely to this growing population will be a welcomed arrival indeed.
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Vicksburg Post. January 6, 2023.
Editorial: If you want to make a change, the time is now
The qualifying period for state and county elections is open now — could this be your chance to run for office and make a change in the community?
There are so many issues at stake at the local and state level, and it might be time for some new blood at the capitol, or even just at the courthouse.
At the state level, we’re facing conversations (and hopefully action) about topics ranging from Medicaid expansion to the dwindling numbers of rural hospitals to education and income taxes. Mississippi has the highest incarceration rate in the country — what needs to be done to both limit the number of people in prisons and help rehabilitate and release prisoners back into society?
At the county level, we’re examining incarceration on a comparatively smaller scale. There’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the construction of a new jail. With that comes questions of funding, staffing and maintaining a new county building, and thus expanding our sheriff’s office’s reach.
It’s a process the current group of county leaders has set in motion over the current term; one that will continue with this board or with a new board.
A local issue we’re constantly watching is the expansion of the Port of Vicksburg at the site off of U.S. 61 South. Thanks to leaders in our community and at the state level, this ambitious project gets closer and closer to becoming reality each time it’s mentioned.
While there’s still a long way to go, the benefits of the port expansion project far outweigh the negatives in terms of increasing job availability, increasing the per capita income in our area, increasing revenue and overall providing an unparalleled economic stimulus to the Warren County area.
The next four years will also bring a new frontier for Mississippians, as medical marijuana will soon become widely available. There are five dispensaries in Warren County that area registered with the Mississippi Department of Revenue — how will our leaders approach the manufacture, sale and taxation of a substance that, up until recently, was considered an illegal drug in all forms?
Maybe you’re satisfied with the state of state and county politics; maybe you’re lobbying for a change.
Either way, you’ve got from now until Feb. 1 to decide: Do you want to be part of the problem or part of the solution?
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