Northern Michigan Mental Health Advocates Still Await Promised State Report

Six months after state lawmakers spent weeks hearing testimony about Michigan's crumbling mental health system, the subcommittee report those hearings were supposed to produce still has not been released, leaving northern Michigan advocates and providers in the dark.

The Subcommittee on Public Health and Food Security, chaired by state Rep. Matthew Bierlein (R-Vassar), wrapped up its testimony last August. The hearings documented what advocates here have long known: a severe shortage of psychiatric beds routinely pushes people in crisis toward local emergency rooms or into the hands of law enforcement, where they end up in jail rather than receiving mental health care. The region also faces a pronounced lack of inpatient beds for children.

Stone Kelly, Bierlein's legislative director, told northern Michigan mental health advocates in an email that his office has been ready to publish the subcommittee report for months. The holdup lies elsewhere. "However, the Speaker's office has had our policy and legal counsel continue reviewing it," Kelly wrote. He offered one possible explanation for the prolonged review: "Our hope is that they may be trying to work something into this year's budget related to the findings, but at this point that remains uncertain."

Kelly also told Interlochen Public Radio that the report should be released this Friday.

For NAMI Grand Traverse president Kate Dahlstrom, the wait has grown frustrating. "Everyone's wondering why it's taking so long," she said. "They went through all these hearings, did all this note taking and work, and then want to get a report out."

Northern Michigan's mental health access problems gave the subcommittee hearings particular urgency for local advocates. Provider shortages in the region are more acute than in Michigan's urban centers, and the absence of inpatient psychiatric beds for children leaves families with few options when a crisis hits.

Neither state Rep. John Roth (R-Interlochen) nor state Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) responded to requests for comment before publication. The Speaker's office has not issued a public statement on the timeline for completing its policy and legal review.

Whether the subcommittee's findings will translate into concrete action depends largely on what happens next in Lansing. Kelly's suggestion that the Speaker's office may be weighing budget implications represents the most substantive clue yet about why the review has stretched on, but he was careful to note the connection remains speculative. Until the report is released, northern Michigan advocates have only the testimony they gave months ago and a promise that the wait is nearly over.