Marchers protest under-funded MHMR program that could mean no meds for those in need

From the El Paso Times in Texas:

EL PASO -- About 1,000 people -- signifying the number of adult mental-health patients who could lose state help to get their medicines in 2009 -- rallied Oct. 16 to urge state lawmakers to provide more money for El Paso Mental Health & Mental Retardation.

Without more money, 1,000 adults and 500 children would be placed on a waiting list and would get no help for medicines, treatment programs and other assistance for six months or longer, the crowd was told.

Not getting the money also could create a ripple effect in the El Paso, overcrowding emergency rooms and jails and exhausting the police force, said Gary Larcenaire, CEO of El Paso Mental Health & Mental Retardation.

Carrying signs with slogans such as "No Waiting Lists" and "Support Mental Health," mental-health patients, their families and caseworkers gathered at Stanton Street and Arizona Avenue. They chanted "Support Mental Health" as they marched one mile to San Jacinto Plaza.

At the protest, Larcenaire compared mental-health patients with diabetics, saying that taking them off their medicines could create many problems.

"We're going to have to take 1,500 people off their meds, and over a period of about six months, all their symptoms will come back," he said as he held up a sign. "They'll be disruptive in school, there will be public disturbances, there will be arrests, there will be people going to the emergency rooms and asking for medications -- it'll be chaos and we know that."

The agency treats 4,200 adults and 1,300 children monthly. The state provides about $12 million, enough to treat 3,000 adults and 588 children, Larcenaire said.

Jay Snyder, 57, who has a major depressive disorder, said that if it weren't for the mental health program, he would probably be dead.

"If it was not for MHMR and the crisis unit, I probably ... I'd hit rock bottom," he said. "I was pre-suicidal. ... If it were not for them, I'd have no safety net at all. ... They've been covering all my meds and they supplied housing for me."