Day heads to DC to advocate for mental health funding

As the pressure mounts for Republicans to pass their version of health care Salisbury Mayor Jake Day wants to make sure funding for mental health is included.

That's why Day  will be heading to D.C. Wednesday with Mayor Bill De Blasio of New York City  along with other mayors from across the US.

"We're going to lobby US senators to ensure that as the ACA is redesigned potentially as any consideration is given to that, we've got to make sure that mental health is front and center for the sake of the people that occupy our cities," Day said.

As Dimitri Cavathas, CEO of the Lower Shore Clinic and Go-Getters a behavioral health clinic on the Eastern Shorem explains fighting for mental health funding is more important now than ever.  

The fear in the mental health community he says is that congress will block grant Medicaid meaning the amount they pay to each state will be set.

"The problem with the block grant is that when you block grant it all of sudden you just have this certain amount of dollars and that means there's going to be people that are not going to get care," Cavathas said.

Day says right now Salisbury and Wicomico County have several programs in place to help with addictions and mental health treatment, such as the Crisis Intervention Team that teachers law enforcement how to properly deal with people who are mentally illness.  

However without funding those programs may be on the chopping block.

"We can't do it without the federal government, we can't do it without the insurance companies and the insurance regime. So if you have an insurance regime that ignores mental healthcare treatment and ignores or doesn't adequately provide support for mental healthcare treatment and substance abuse recovery and treatment then again, we're going fail," Day said.

Day said the efforts won't end with Wednesday and that they'll continue to lobby for mental health funding as long as the health care debate continues in Congress.