WFAE 90.7

"This whole legislative season has been like living in a surrealist world. Every morning I woke up I was expecting to see something more ridiculous than I saw yesterday." - Belmont Abbey College Professor Rajive Tiwari.

Mecklenburg County’s mental health patients are being denied care they have grown accustomed to, after a statewide reorganization cut money available for Medicaid mental health. Mecklenburg County set up the agency, MeckLINK, to manage the remaining funds. The agency's officials blame the state for cutbacks, but providers say denials to patients for service exceed the amount cut by the state. 

17-year-old Taylor Christie was coming home to Matthews, after a year in a locked treatment facility and then in a therapeutic foster home. Her mother Barbara was worried.

“She has all this anger pent up and when it erupts, it erupts toward me,” Christie says.

Taylor’s been diagnosed with a variety of mental health conditions, including a mood disorder and oppositional defiance disorder. Taylor’s therapist had recommended Intensive In-Home treatment, where counselors visit the family a few times a week. MeckLINK denied the request.