The mental health of our children is on everyone’s mind, including school leaders. That’s why 10 rural districts and charter schools jumped at the chance to apply for mental health support through Idaho’s Rural Health Transformation Program.
The plans included counseling, telehealth, and behavioral health coordinators to help students and families connect with care. Their work was wasted when a Republican-only interim committee voted to shut down the opportunity and redirect $1.2 million.
The documented need was high. In Notus, 46% of surveyed junior high and high school students identified mental health as a concern, and the district sought $60,000 for a coordinator serving students from preschool through 12th grade. Aberdeen wanted to expand counseling and wellness services in a community where some care is 20 to 50 minutes away.
The decision is hard to understand, but it fits a pattern from the Republican supermajority: cutting investments in mental health.
Last year, Idaho eliminated Assertive Community Treatment, or ACT, along with peer support services, as years of tax cuts for the wealthy left less money for essential services. ACT provided intensive, mobile care for people with severe mental illness.
Providers and law enforcement warned that people would end up in crisis without those supports. Soon, visits to eastern Idaho crisis centers had increased by 34% in December and 43% in January compared with the year before. Providers reported rising hospitalizations and more pressure on jails.
Four former ACT patients died after the program was cut, compared with one reported death during the previous 18 months. After months of warnings and advocacy from mental health practitioners, lawmakers pieced together one-time funding to bring ACT and peer support back. That meant providers had to fight to restore services instead of focusing on patients in their communities. But the future of those services remains uncertain.
These cuts were not just cruel. They were shortsighted from a budget perspective, too. Providers estimated ACT cost less than $100 per patient per day, while untreated illness can lead to repeated hospitalizations, court hearings, and jail stays that cost taxpayers far more.
When elected officials disregard the health and safety of our communities, there should be accountability.
The Rural Health Transformation Committee is made up of eight Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Dori Healey and Dustin Manwaring. Both are now up for reelection in two of the most competitive legislative districts in Idaho.
Voters in those districts should take a hard look at this record. Blocking mental health resources for rural families after Idaho has already seen the consequences of cutting care is the kind of decision that should carry real political consequences.
The Republicans who made this decision had the chance to learn from what happened. Now voters do too.
Onward,
Lauren Necochea
Idaho Democratic Party Chair