Families tell House panel Michigan—ommunity mental health system is failing; lawmakers call for audit

Chair Meerman convened the House Oversight Subcommittee on Child Welfare System hearing, saying Michigan spends about $5.3 billion annually on mental-health services and that the committee would hear testimony from families who said the system was failing.

Several witnesses described long-standing failures by regional community mental health (CMH) authorities to provide consistent, medically recommended care and said the gaps were causing harm. "For too long, you have struggled and struggled and not gotten the support and the help that you need," Meerman said as he opened the hearing.

Brian Green, a parent and alternate guardian for his stepson Dawson, told the committee the Bergman Center and other adult day programs in Northern Michigan were closed after funding actions by North Country Community Mental Health. Green said the Bergman Center gave North Country 30 days' notice of discontinuation; at a later board meeting he said the board directed its executive director to meet providers but then issued a cease-and-desist and did not negotiate. "I have no recourse even though the law,…