Weyler, a Republican from Kingston, charged that mental health providers encourage people to become "patients for life" to preserve state funding.
"By cutting the amount of help we're willing to offer, we'd like them to discover that some of these people can be cured," Weyler said. "You shouldn't keep them just so you can keep your revenue coming in."
Weyler said if a woman went to a mental health center for help with postpartum depression, the center would keep her as a patient for the rest of her life. In reality, he said, the woman might no longer need services after a year, once her baby became "a little more animated."
..."It's up to the mental health practitioners," Weyler said. "If they find someone who is really a danger to themselves and others, but don't try to stabilize them, and they say, 'Aha, this guy is going to go out and do something really strange, but if we turn him away, we can say, ah, we were right, you cheap bums.' "
There is no possible excuse for Weyler's comments. They cannot be glossed over as breathtakingly ignorant.
Representative Weyler is alleging that New Hampshire mental health providers mistreat the mentally ill for the sake of profit.
