Editorial: Coker's appointment is good for mental-health-care reform

By: JournalNow Staff | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: January 23, 2012

The continuing reform of North Carolina's failed mental-health care system got a boost this week with the appointment of local advocate Laurie Coker of Winston-Salem to a state legislative subcommittee that will oversee a new strategy for managing the delivery of behavioral-health care services.

Coker, who is director of the N.C. Consumer Advocacy, Networking and Support Organization, was appointed to the 24-member subcommittee that will focus on governance of local management entities, which oversee behavioral-health providers and services, the Journal's Richard Craver reported.

"Laurie is a very active advocate," Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, chairman of the subcommittee, told the Journal. "She has brought a lot of good ideas, insight and perspective to these issues."

Coker described her appointment as "a door finally being opened in the General Assembly that lends legitimacy to our advocacy. The fact a consumer advocate, and a consumer, is being included is good for the whole process."

The subcommittee's role is to monitor the 11 local management entities, known as LMEs, including CenterPoint Human Services in Winston-Salem, as they become regional managed-care organizations. These new organizations will administer the Medicaid waiver program, which will combine Medicaid and state funds for management at the community level for the first time. CenterPoint serves Davie, Forsyth, Rockingham and Stokes counties. The Medicaid waiver program, which begins in January 2013, is supposed to reduce costs and make mental-health care more reliable and consistent following years of poor or inadequate services. CenterPoint will grow significantly to handle its new responsibilities.

That's where Laurie Coker will be invaluable. She is a passionate, outspoken advocate for consumers of behavioral-health care services. As a former psychiatric nurse, she is a well-versed and tireless spokesperson for higher quality mental-health care treatment. And as a regular attendee at meetings of the legislature's Joint Health and Human Services oversight committee, she "brings unique experience and perspective to this effort," Rep. Dollar said.

We at the Journal also know Laurie Coker as a longtime persistent voice on behalf of those who struggle with mental illness, and their families. She has been critical of CenterPoint management and responsiveness to local needs. As a Managed Care Organization, CenterPoint will operate with fewer restrictions on how they manage providers of mental-health treatment, development disability and substance-abuse services. Oversight will be critical.

Laurie Coker's appointment to the subcommittee gives us hope for the eventual success of mental-health care reform in North Carolina.