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Judge Milton Mack

πŸ‘€ Speaker
520 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

In the meantime, all of a sudden, logjam broke loose in Lansing. I was able to get a series of bills passed in 2016 and 2018 that changed the way the process works in Michigan. We're seeing real differences now. Are there other things that you do as well? One of the things I do is I do CIT training for law enforcement.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

And I tell them about the new mental health code in Michigan, how it's now an inpatient, it's now an outpatient model in an outpatient world. And when I say that, It's because over 90% of all the treatment for mental illness is on an outpatient basis. So the system should reflect that. We should find a way to help people get help when they need it.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

And I tell them about the new mental health code in Michigan, how it's now an inpatient, it's now an outpatient model in an outpatient world. And when I say that, It's because over 90% of all the treatment for mental illness is on an outpatient basis. So the system should reflect that. We should find a way to help people get help when they need it.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

And I tell them about the new mental health code in Michigan, how it's now an inpatient, it's now an outpatient model in an outpatient world. And when I say that, It's because over 90% of all the treatment for mental illness is on an outpatient basis. So the system should reflect that. We should find a way to help people get help when they need it.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

If you go back to 1963, the Community Mental Health Act, that bill was designed to do two things. Significantly reduce the number of people in hospital and provide an outpatient system of care as an alternative. The outpatient treatment system didn't happen. So what happened? We got 2 million people in America with serious mental illness in jail every year.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

If you go back to 1963, the Community Mental Health Act, that bill was designed to do two things. Significantly reduce the number of people in hospital and provide an outpatient system of care as an alternative. The outpatient treatment system didn't happen. So what happened? We got 2 million people in America with serious mental illness in jail every year.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

If you go back to 1963, the Community Mental Health Act, that bill was designed to do two things. Significantly reduce the number of people in hospital and provide an outpatient system of care as an alternative. The outpatient treatment system didn't happen. So what happened? We got 2 million people in America with serious mental illness in jail every year.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

We have well over 300,000 in our state prison system with serious mental illness because they're left untreated. People think that guardianship is for adults. No. Over half of our guardianships are for people with serious mental illness who never got the treatment they needed when it would have made a difference.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

We have well over 300,000 in our state prison system with serious mental illness because they're left untreated. People think that guardianship is for adults. No. Over half of our guardianships are for people with serious mental illness who never got the treatment they needed when it would have made a difference.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

We have well over 300,000 in our state prison system with serious mental illness because they're left untreated. People think that guardianship is for adults. No. Over half of our guardianships are for people with serious mental illness who never got the treatment they needed when it would have made a difference.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

So my objection has been to create a system where we intervene early and avoid the use of hospitals as well as jails and prisons. Because hospitals really are not therapeutic environments, number one. Well, they're more than jails and prisons, but they're designed to stabilize someone. not to get them into recovery, not to get them well, but stable.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

So my objection has been to create a system where we intervene early and avoid the use of hospitals as well as jails and prisons. Because hospitals really are not therapeutic environments, number one. Well, they're more than jails and prisons, but they're designed to stabilize someone. not to get them into recovery, not to get them well, but stable.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

So my objection has been to create a system where we intervene early and avoid the use of hospitals as well as jails and prisons. Because hospitals really are not therapeutic environments, number one. Well, they're more than jails and prisons, but they're designed to stabilize someone. not to get them into recovery, not to get them well, but stable.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

So just for example, in Wayne County, which is where Detroit's located, we did a study. Over a five-year period, we had 15,000 petitions for mental health treatment for 9,000 individuals. 600 of those 9,000 people accounted for 36% of all the petitions filed. There was less than 1% of the population, but 36% of the petitions filed.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

So just for example, in Wayne County, which is where Detroit's located, we did a study. Over a five-year period, we had 15,000 petitions for mental health treatment for 9,000 individuals. 600 of those 9,000 people accounted for 36% of all the petitions filed. There was less than 1% of the population, but 36% of the petitions filed.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

So just for example, in Wayne County, which is where Detroit's located, we did a study. Over a five-year period, we had 15,000 petitions for mental health treatment for 9,000 individuals. 600 of those 9,000 people accounted for 36% of all the petitions filed. There was less than 1% of the population, but 36% of the petitions filed.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

And they are what we call the front of the faces that rotate in and out of the system constantly. We looked at the top users of the system. We had 79 people who had at least 10 petitions in the previous five years. Those individuals in the prior fiscal year, we spent $3.3 million on hospitalization, $1.6 million on incarceration, a total of $4.9 million. And for that $4.9 million, we got nothing.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

And they are what we call the front of the faces that rotate in and out of the system constantly. We looked at the top users of the system. We had 79 people who had at least 10 petitions in the previous five years. Those individuals in the prior fiscal year, we spent $3.3 million on hospitalization, $1.6 million on incarceration, a total of $4.9 million. And for that $4.9 million, we got nothing.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

And they are what we call the front of the faces that rotate in and out of the system constantly. We looked at the top users of the system. We had 79 people who had at least 10 petitions in the previous five years. Those individuals in the prior fiscal year, we spent $3.3 million on hospitalization, $1.6 million on incarceration, a total of $4.9 million. And for that $4.9 million, we got nothing.

Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Judge Milton Mack's Mission to Reform Mental Healthcare

One individual had 46 visits to the ER. So at what point in time do we say, this is not working, clearly not working?