North Carolina gets low grades for mental health.

The state needs to make its mental health system less complex, make its psychiatric hospitals safer, and promote practices shown to improve patients' conditions, said said Deby Dihoff, executive director of NAMI North Carolina.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness gave the state a "D" for its mental health care system in a report released Wednesday. "D" was the national average, Lynn Bonner reports.

"Nobody has it right," Dihoff said.  "I do know that we can improve our grade."

The state needs housing for the mentally ill, peer support services and treatment for people who have both mental illnesses and substance abuse problems, Dihoff said.

The state has already reduced the money it expected to spend this year on mental health because of the fiscal crisis,  said Rep. Verla Insko, a Chapel Hill Democrat. And more cuts are coming.

Dean Smith, a former Cherry Hospital patient who was beaten by hospital employees, said the hospitals don't have enough money and that state policies have "perpetuated a climate of abuse and neglect."

"The hospitals need staff trained to understand the symptoms of mental illness," said Smith, who was featured in The News & Observer series on the mental health system. "Then staff needs to be trained to respond in helpful, healing ways."

Insko said she expects improved hospital oversight because Lanier Cansler, the head of the state Department of Health and Human Services, is looking to reorganize the office that oversees state institutions and hire a professional hospital administrator to run it.

Interest groups that want to make the state mental health system an issue in the governor's race have started a website, ncmentalhealthvote.org.

Sponsors — the N.C. Psychiatric Association, the Mental Health Association in North Carolina and the National Alliance on Mental Illness' North Carolina chapter — are passing out bumper stickers promoting the site, Lynn Bonner reports.

The site doesn't have much on it so far, but organizers envision sponsoring candidate forums and buying ads if they get enough support.