Mental health town hall meeting brings out many concerned consumers

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Mental health is on the agenda for the State Health Department.

Leaders held a town hall meeting at the First Baptist Church Activity Center in Wilmington to hear how people in our area are responding to the department’s services.

Leaders are holding meetings at many locations throughout the state. Wilmington happens to be the the first.

The industry is continuously evolving and state Health and Human Services leaders are in the area to discuss a range of issues impacting consumers.

“Mental health, substance use disorder, and intellectual and developmental disabilities here in North Carolina,” Deputy Secretary Kody Kinsley said.

Peer Support Specialist Stephan Iaboni who’s been through the mental health system himself says a decrease in support is only hurting patients rather than helping them.

“Well my concern is that the state has recently lowered standardized support. And it has cut off access to certain people with insurance, and so we’ve had to tell people they couldn’t come visit us,” Iaboni said.

Beyond mental health, Kinsley says behavioral health is a key component of the issues many people are facing, and a driving force in breaking the cycle of addiction and despair.

“With gun violence, substance use disorder, opioid issues happening in communities, and of course down east hurricanes. These are incredibly traumatic events, that are hitting our communities, day in and day out. Behavioral health is the right tool to work with individuals to try to break that cycle,” Kinsley expressed.

He also says they’ve been working on transforming their Medicaid system. He says they’re looking to move toward managed care which will focus on treating the whole patient.

“Also how do we integrate behavioral health care into that care, so that we can really treat people as people,” Kinsley added.