The Insane Bloat of the Missouri Department of Mental Health Budget

The 2020 Supplemental Budget authorizes over $6.2 Billion extra in spending for various measures, including mental health and suicide prevention efforts that were not previously included in the regular budget. Note that the Department of Mental Health does not acknowledge that psychiatric drugs can actually cause suicide as a side effect, although the FDA most certainly recognizes this.

Under normal circumstances, the Supplemental Budget funds various governmental functions that were not fully accounted for in the regular budget, plugging holes in the state’s spending as the fiscal year draws to a close on June 30, 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 crisis, the scale of this year’s supplemental budget is unprecedented.

SS SCS HCS HB2014, signed by the Governor on April 10, 2020, will distribute a large portion of Missouri’s federal stimulus dollars, as well as our own state General Revenue to fund Missouri’s fight against COVID-19. Normally, the Supplemental Budget’s price tag is measured in Millions. The staggering amount of budgetary authority in this year’s Supplemental Budget is over $6.2 Billion, and includes significant additional spending by the Department of Mental Health.

Here is a breakdown of additional Department of Mental Health spending authorized in the Supplemental Budget:

Department of Mental Health Federal Stimulus Fund
 $5,075,000    For receiving and expending grants, donations, contracts, and payments
 $900,000      For suicide prevention initiatives
 $15,364,800   For funding community programs
 $8,175,000    For paying a pandemic stipend to state employees providing direct care and support to institutionalized individuals during the COVID-19 public health emergency

Department of Mental Health Federal Fund
 $970,000      For receiving and expending grants, donations, contracts, and payments 
$834,127       For funding youth community programs
 $348,724      For funding developmental disabilities services

Department of Mental Health General Revenue Fund
 $3,922,500    For paying overtime to state employees
 $200,000      To pay the state operated Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICF/ID) provider tax
 $259,530      For Expense and Equipment
 $8,175,000    For paying a pandemic stipend to state employees providing direct care and support to institutionalized individuals during the COVID-19 public health emergency

$676,996      Funds to be transferred out of the State Treasury to Department of Mental Health Federal Fund From Intermediate Care Facility Intellectually Disabled Reimbursement Allowance Fund 

Total Department of Mental Health additions: $44,901,677.

The introduction and passage of legislation designed to curb psychiatric fraud and abuse can contribute to the reduction of the Department of Mental Health budget. For examples of Model Legislation, click here.

Reports show that:

• 10% to 25% of mental health practitioners sexually abuse patients.
• Psychiatry has the worst fraud track record of all medical disciplines.
• The largest health care fraud suit in history [$375 million] involved the smallest sector of healthcare–psychiatry.
• An estimated $20-$40 billion is defrauded in the mental health industry in any given year.

Download and read the full report “Massive Fraud — Psychiatry’s Corrupt Industry.”

Recommendations

1. Establish or increase the number of psychiatric fraud investigation units to recover funds that are embezzled in the mental health system.
2. Clinical and financial audits of all government-run and private psychiatric facilities that receive government subsidies or insurance payments should be done to ensure accountability; statistics on admissions, treatment and deaths, without breaching patient confidentiality, should be compiled for review.
3. A list of convicted psychiatrists and mental health workers, especially those convicted and/or disciplined for fraud and sexual abuse should be kept on state, national and international law enforcement and police agencies databases, to prevent criminally convicted and/or de-registered mental health practitioners from gaining employment elsewhere in the mental health field.
4. No convicted mental health practitioner should be employed by government agencies, especially in correctional/prison facilities or schools.
5. The DSM and lCD (mental disorders section) should be removed from use in all government agencies, departments and other bodies including criminal, educational and justice systems.
6. Establish rights for patients and their insurance companies to receive refunds for mental health treatment which did not achieve the promised result or improvement, or which resulted in proven harm to the individual, thereby ensuring that responsibility lies with the individual practitioner and psychiatric facility rather than the government or its agencies.
7. None of the mental disorders in the DSM/ICD should be eligible for insurance coverage because they have no scientific, physical validation. Governmental, criminal, educational and judicial agencies should not rely on the DSM or lCD (mental disorders section).
8. Provide funding and insurance coverage only for proven, workable treatments that verifiably and dramatically improve or cure mental health problems.

We think it is time to call psychiatry and psychology for what they are — failed pseudo sciences with no basis in fact, pseudo sciences that harm their recipients and line the pocketbooks of their practitioners.