NAMI Ohio urges legislature to expand community mental-health supports as prisons fill care gaps

Luke Russell, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Ohio, told the House Community Revitalization Committee on Oct. 12 that Ohio’s mental-health system lacks a person-centered continuum of care and that families and correctional facilities are increasingly providing care for people with serious mental illness.

“We are proud that we are the largest mental health advocacy organization in the country representing 500,000 Ohio citizens and their families,” Russell said. He told the committee NAMI Ohio has 39 affiliates covering 85 of the state’s 88 counties and stressed that “family members families living with mental illness provide 80% of the caregiving.”

Why it matters: Russell said the shortage of civil inpatient beds and community supports forces many Ohioans with serious mental illness into prisons, jails, homeless shelters and substandard housing. He described a system where state hospital capacity is heavily used for forensic purposes, and argued that investing in housing, day services, care coordination and workforce pay would reduce expensive hospital and jail stays.

Russell listed the services and…