Columbus Mental Health

Located in the geographic center of Ohio, Columbus is the capital of the state as well as the county seat of Franklin County. Columbus is the most populated city in Ohio with a head count of over 700,000 according to the year 2000 census.

The Columbus Health Department is the local public health agency for Columbus. At first glance, it looks like a comprehensive city department with an annual budget of $35 million and a staff of over 400. However, as many city health departments, the CHD seems to focus on environmental, and sanitation issues, totally overlooking the mental health needs of its citizens.

Columbus is a city of nearly a dozen hospitals, yet only one of them provides extended inpatient care for the mentally ill. This hospital is the state-run Twin Valley Behavioral Health Care, which is a public, 228-bed, psychiatric facility, which provides service not only to citizens of Columbus, but also to residents of Franklin County as well as to 11 additional Ohio counties. Twin Valley Behavioral Health Care also serves as a forensic facility for those who are court ordered to receive treatment for mental illnesses.

A 2001 survey of the patients at Twin Valley met with a response of 80%, which tripled the response rate of a year 2000 survey. Published in 2002 by the Ohio Legal Rights Service, the survey results indicated that 59 percent of the respondents felt that they weren’t receiving services that would help in their recoveries and over a third of the respondents didn’t feel safe at Twin Valley Behavioral Health Care.

Two consumer advocate agencies are active in trying to create change in the way that Columbus and the state of Ohio handle mental health care issues.

The Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities (OACBHA)

The OACBHA seeks to expand existing programs and initiate new ones. Although the OACBHA represents all Ohio counties at a state level, citizens of Columbus will benefit from its successful efforts.

Membership is made up of 57 county behavioral health authorities in areas that include alcohol abuse and drug addiction as well as mental health concerns. The association is funded by federal, state, and local governments and empowered to develop, evaluate, and manage community mental health and substance abuse programs and services.

Ohio State Chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)

The Ohio chapter of NAMI is at the forefront of the move to improve mental health services in Ohio. Their comprehensive look at the problems and possible solutions, TO LIFT THE BURDEN: Reducing the Costs of Untreated Mental Illness in Ohio, along with several other brochures and documents, is available in PDF download at the Ohio NAMI website (http://namiohio.org/ )

It is the commitment of organizations like these that will bring mental health care in Columbus, Ohio and other municipalities into the 21st Century.