What does the Health and Human Services Secretary do?
Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on December 5, 2008 - 2:38pm.Tags: Bob Scott | Medicaid | mental health | N.C. Department of Health and Human Services | Under the Dome | welfare
Oversees the state's social welfare and health care programs.
As head of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, the governor-appointed secretary manages state health programs, mental health services and employment assistance, among other programs.
The department typically has the largest budget of the Cabinet or the Council of State, with money coming from the state and federal government. In 2007-08, its $16.5 billion budget was nearly three times the spending of all nine other Cabinet departments combined.
With more than 16,000 employees, it is typically among the largest three departments in the Cabinet or the Council of State.
The secretary's 2008-09 annual salary was $120,363.
There have been two female Health and Human Services secretaries: Dr. Sarah Morrow in the 1970s and Carmen Hooker Buell (later Odom) in the 2000s.
In 1971, the legislature created the N.C. Department of Human Resources during the administration of Gov. Bob Scott to put more than 300 state agencies handling similar programs on mental health and social services.
Throughout the 1970s, programs on vocational rehabilitation, aging, Medicaid and rural health were added to the department's responsibilities.
In 1989, services for the deaf and hard of hearing and public health programs were also added.
In 1997, the name was changed to the Department of Health and Human Services.
It is one of 10 Cabinet-level positions in North Carolina.
The department is outlined in general statutes under Article 3 of G.S. 143B.
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Re: What does the Health and Human Services Secretary do?
My comment is on what he is not doing -- He is not providing good mental health care to residents of poor counties like Washington County. I will not argue that AMHC is/was an organization without its flaws because as a therapist I could see them, but when it came to the work done in the Plymouth Unit while I worked there, we provided good services to the patients. By the time I was laid off in October 2008, the psychiatrists, support staff and myself, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, provided quality care to approximately 300 residents of Washington County. We were able to prevent hospitalization in most cases. Often this was because we had patients come in several times a week. I was in private practice in another state for more than 20 years and I had to be a good therapist to make a living in a city with hundreds of private practices. I provided as good or better to Washington County patients as did the psychiatrists.
I no longer have a job with AMHC so I have no interest in "saving" that organization as it currently functions. I am very sorry that many very caring, competent people will be losing their jobs because these people had nothing to do with the organization's problems. My question is, what will be done for the poor in this county where there is no public transportation and, to the best of my knowledge, no local private sector service that can provide for their needs?
I have been around for a long time and I know this system will never work in poor counties. I doubt that it will be effective in affluent counties. Public mental health care has never been perfect but it has never been this bad either. This is a sad time for this county already plagued with crime, lack of employment opportunity, no public transportation and now no place to get mental health treatment.