The loss of accreditation for North Carolina's oldest mental-health-advocacy group shouldn't have any effect on the services that its affiliate chapter in Forsyth County provides.
This week, the Mental Health Association of North Carolina lost its accreditation from the Council on Quality and Leadership, which is based in Maryland. The accreditation allowed it to receive federal Medicaid reimbursements.
But that should have no effect on the Mental Health Association in Forsyth County, said Andy Hagler, the organization's executive director.
The local nonprofit group has its own budget and governing board and does not get any money from the Raleigh mental-health group, Hagler said yesterday.
"I know people tend to brushstroke by thinking we are all one and the same," he said.
The Mental Health Association of North Carolina, or MHA, is also one of the state's largest private providers of group homes and treatment programs; Hagler said that his organization's focus has been advocacy and providing educational and support services.
Easter Seals UCP of North Carolina will take over operation of MHA's 266 apartments units for people with mental illness and 12 group homes around the state as well as four treatment teams serving 320 patients, the Raleigh News & Observer of reported. As of June 11, the MHA had housing units in Ashe and Wilkes counties, according to its website.
Easter Seals will also take over a psychosocial-rehabilitation program that serves 44 patients.
John Tote, who had helped lead the nonprofit MHA for the past 24 years, was named in May to replace Leza Wainwright as director of mental health at the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Wainwright will retire Sept. 1.
Tote was forced to withdraw from the offer to take over as state mental-health director less than a week later after news reports that MHA faced more than $1.5 million in Internal Revenue Service liens after failing to pay payroll taxes for years. Federal tax returns indicate that MHA has been losing money for years.
The first liens for unpaid taxes were filed against MHA in 2006, according to records on file with the state. That year, Tote received $172,573 in salary and another $43,143 in benefits and pension contributions, according to MHA's 2006 tax return.
The next year, MHA reported on its tax return a net loss of more than $920,000. Tote's salary rose to $181,034.
MHA's 2007 return was not filed with the IRS until June 2009. It is not clear whether MHA ever filed its tax returns for 2008 or 2009.
John S. McKee III, a board chairman, said that Tote hid the organization's financial problems.
Hagler said he hasn't heard much about what caused MHA's loss of accreditation.
"The main thing from an advocacy perspective is making sure that MHA NC provided for are not affected and that the transition from MHA NC to Easter Seals is as seamless as possible," he said.
mhewlett@wsjournal.com
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