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BreakDown: Crisis in Mental-Health Care

Part 1: December 4, 2005
BreakDown: Part 1 - Help, Somebody
State's switch to community-care units proving cumbersome and frustrating for patients, providers

Risky: Patients sent to family-care homes
Advocates for the elderly have complained for years that the state relies on facilities that were designed to look after old people to house younger adults with serious mental illness.

Part 2: December 5, 2005
BreakDown: Part 2 - A Major Fumble
Private spinoff from public agency shuts down

In Case of Emergency: Forsyth short of 24-hour help and beds
Overflow being shuttled to state hospital

Tweaking Will Cost Money
State wants less spending on administration and more freedom in the use of Medicaid

Journal Video Feb. 5, 2006 From Hospitalized to Homeless Christopher Dobbins is one of many former psychiatric patients who have found themselves adrift after being released from state hospitals. Dec. 5, 2005 Interview with Matthew Daye Daye has struggled with an alcohol problem for about 10 years. He attended a drug- and-alcohol-counseling program at HopeRidge. After its collapse, he has been unable to find a similar counseling program and has grown frustrated with the difficulties in finding a new one. Dec. 5, 2005 Interview with Dr. Karyn Gordon Gordon is a pediatrician at Winston East Pediatrics. Last August, when HopeRidge collapsed, many of mothers whose children were patients at HopeRidge called the office for help.

Journal Graphics