How will mental health system be improved by cuts? Maria Montanaro

Illustration: Urban Times: UK: 2014 article: UK's Messed Up Mental Health Care System

Well, smug and ambitious and too often INCOMPETENT bureaucrats have strange ways of thinking. Governor Gina Raimondo, with all the humanity of a robot, just announced cuts in Rhode Island Medicaid.

On the front page of the March 14 Providence Journal the new head of the Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals, (BHDDH), Maria Montanaro, "insists mental health system will be improved."

March 12 local news: "Woman released from hospital loses toes".... "A mentally ill woman, who recently checked herself out of Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, landed back there after it was too late." Her name is Teressa Wright. Her family is furious and asked why she was even allowed to leave.

I think any mental health professional associated with the state of Rhode Island might consider wearing a bag over her or his head.

We talk about the evil of bullying and how to combat it. But what is this neglect of the most vulnerable people– the mentally ill, but a form of state sponsored bullying? Like her idol Hillary Clinton, Gina Raimondo is to be commended for making "tough choices." In the service of the ONE PERCENT!

Submitted to: letters@usatoday.com, letter@globe.com, letters@providencejournal.com