Hooker Odom's out

I am relieved that Odom stepped down under pressure but she was only doing what Easley wanted her to do. All of his/her reforms were based on the closing of Dix and their actions and mandates snowballed out of control. Easley and Odom need to be investigated along with the general assembly for their roles in secretly dismantling Dix and for neglecting to properly fund community continuum care. As a former patient at Dix, even I can see how insane this all is.
Odom's out but that does not automatically undo all the damage her department reeked on our mental health system. We need to pull together as a statewide community and do what is best for the patients first, before we talk about housing state employees on the hill or turning it into Raleigh's version of Central Park. Hopefully, Dorothea Dix was smiling down on us Friday when Odom resigned, but she knows that we need to do more to bring awareness and compassion to people with mental illnesses. It is up to us to speak out for those who cannot!
You can make a difference by coming to the state legislature mall in raleigh at 1:30pm May 15 and march to the governor's mansion in support of REAL mental health reforms that make a difference instead of reforms meant to be combative and non productive in nature. People working in the mental health field will still be working for patients long after Easley and Odom are gone, so they are asking for your support for continued care for our less fortunate. Let's get to work!!!!!!

Marsha V. Hammond, PhD: Licensed Psychologist e mail: hammondmv@netzero.com cell: 404 964 5338 NC mental health reform blogsite: http://madame-defarge.blogspot.com/

Before we move forward----and I think we all hope that we do---in a postive manner---there needs to be some information and investigation of the audit of Community Support providers that Hooker Odom utilized in order to defund Community Support. I have begun this. I am waiting for Verla Insko to get the rest of the information from the consultant that she says she believes did that audit.

Easley and anyone else (like all those other people in DHHS: DMA: Medicaid; Medicare : ) and MIKE MOSLEY (Director of MH: mike.moseley@ncmail.net)need to be held accountable for their flimsy audit.

I have begun that process as associated with these questions(and this is at, with more detail: http://madame-defarge.blogspot.com/ Brad Deen, Brad.Deen@ncmail.net, assoc w/ DHHS, can send you the EXCEL file so you can look at it.

Its the same information that we had over 10 days ago from the Raleigh News Observer reporter, Lynn Bonner: http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/566059.html
Here is the audit she posted at that time, in a pdf file: http://www.newsobserver.com/content/politics/
story_graphics/20070420_health_audit.pdf

The EXCEL file that Deen sent to me is the same as Bonner's, in terms of specific providers, and in terms of detail (I can only assume that Bonner translated it, somehow). However, the Deen EXCEL file, as associated with the pop-up descriptor boxes at the top (there is confounding cross-over between Grps 2 & 3, as per below: n = 168 (participants)

The 3 categories of providers assoc w/ EXCEL file (Deen)

Category 1: "Providers that scored 75% or higher on the overall Medicaid audit, and on the above critical measures" (there's 89 providers in that group)

Category 2: "Providers that scored less than 75% but greater than 50% on the overall Medicaid audit, and on the above critical measures ; (there's 17 providers in that group w. 1 no-show)

Category 3: ">Providers that scores less than 50% on critical measures and had 4 or more records which did not contain notes for the events audited." (there's 16 providcers in that group w/ 1 no-show).

SOME QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED:

1. How many Endorsed Providers are there in NC? (in other words, what is the overall 'n' or number of Endorsed Providers from which the 167 were gathered.

2. Were the 'passpoints' of 50% and 75% as associated with Gps 1,2,3 set:
a. arbitrarily?
b. norm-referenced? (there is no normative data and so that is not possible; in other words, this matter has not been studied before and a set of data carefully created in order to evaluate subsequent behaviors is not in existence)
c. criterion referenced? If so, what were the criteria utilized in order to make the judgments and render the percentages? In other words, how was it that 50% and 75% were chosen? There is no clear reason to do this. It is assumed to be arbitrary. And that does not suffice.

3. What were the target measures associated with rendering the scores, the percentages, the cut-offs? What did the raters look at besides the fact that these were the 167 heaviest billers in NC?
(MORE INFORMATION IN PREVIOUS DAY'S MADAME DEFARGE BLOG SITE POST)

To cut to the chase here : the problem with the providers in Category 3 is that 8 of the 15 providers had 4 or more missing notes. THAT'S IT....until Deen or Hooker Odom or someone in DMA identified what the critical measures were. There is no information on the other 7 providers in Category 3.

If the governor is wise, he will turn the reform process over to world class managment consultants, (McKenzie or Bain), who will report to a panel of knowledgeable, highly experienced citizens. The panel might include the dean of Kenan-Flagler or Fuqua, a member of the Institute of Medicine, a current or former CEO of a health care company, a member of NAMI, a member of the Mental Health Association, a consumer, whomever replaces Odom, UNC's Dr. Rubinow, Dr. Leiberman. Anybody think of anyone else? Whoever takes over Odom's job will have to be immensely experienced because the system is a mess.

Ms. Hooker-Odom wants to "shape national health care policy"? Oh great, in the future mentally ill individuals and their families all across the country can be treated like they are in North Carolina. Let's pray there are plenty of other voices in that think tank that will speak with integrity, compassion and intelligence when mental health care policies are being considered.

This witch may be dead but we don't know where her sister or her brother is. If Easley truly thinks she did a great job, as he stated, we need to have a pot of water standing by for whoever he puts in her place, in case we need it. I hope this is the BEGINNING of a housecleaning, not the end.

We have all been praying for a solution to the difficulties in Human Services...Now is the time for renewed prayer as the situation is still dire. Who has the vision to untangle and unwind the downward spiral of human services in North Carolina?

Now maybe the Department can begin to put "services" back into Health and Human Services.

Now that she has practically destroyed the Mental Health System in the state she is leaving. Good riddance!!!

The wicked witch..The wicked witch...the wicked witch is dead!!!!

of taking care of a marginalized segment of society, those with Mental Health problems!

n/t

That is the best news I have seen all day.