Lawmakers need to put Oklahomans first
An 8-year-old boy who is suicidal and needs a safe place to stay as he works through depression and behavioral issues.
A 14-year-old boy who was severely abused by his parents, moved from foster home to foster home, and needs therapeutic care to process trauma, develop healthy coping skills and learn to build trust with adults.
A 15-year-old girl who has been receiving behavioral care for 11 years and needs treatment in a residential setting to quit self-harming and aggressive behavior and build selfconfidence for a healthy life.
These are the faces of Red River Youth Academy, a psychiatric residential treatment (PRTF) center in Norman that provides specialized, inpatient behavioral care for children throughout Oklahoma. And, sadly, these are the children who will go without the treatment they need and deserve if our state legislators fail to find a permanent solution to our state’s budget shortfall.
Earlier this month, Commissioner Terri White of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services announced that SoonerCare will run out of money to pay for PRTF services on Dec. 1 if the Legislature doesn't make up for the shortfall created when the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the $1.50 cigarette fee unconstitutional.
In 2016, more than 100,000 children younger than 21 received behavioral health care services through SoonerCare. At Red River Youth Academy, we treat children and adolescents with severe anger, aggression and defiance. We work with these children to help them find healthy ways to process their past and work through the experiences and feelings that contribute to their behavioral issues. This work takes time and cannot be effectively addressed during a short hospital stay alone, which is why the residential services we provide are so important.
Without a permanent solution, the lack of SoonerCare reimbursements will eliminate access to the care and services patients throughout Oklahoma depend on and deserve. The impacts will be longlasting and far-reaching, including overcrowding in our emergency rooms and detention centers, and increases in suicide and self-harm rates, substance abuse and overdoses, assault and battery, child abuse and homelessness as people throughout our state are denied the critical mental health care they need.
Balancing the state’s budget on the backs of our state’s most vulnerable citizens is simply not an option. Red River Youth Academy has joined with other behavioral health providers, hospitals, nonprofit groups, law enforcement, district attorneys, educators, and business and community leaders to demand that our legislators pass the $1.50-per-pack cigarette tax, designating all funds go to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the Department of Human Services.
Access to care is something that impacts us all, and we urge all in our community to lend their voices to ensuring that care is available to all who need it. Please join us by contacting your state legislators and asking them to put the people of Oklahoma above politics.