NEWS

Candidates tackle mental illness and health-care issues at forum By James Boyd, Herald-Times Staff Writer October 5, 2004 Sit a panel of county council and commissioner candidates down in a room for two and a half hours and there are few things you can get total agreement on. Training local law enforcement officers to deal with the mentally ill is one of them. A group of candidates met Monday night at the Shalom Community Center to answer questions primarily focused on public policy matters including health care, prescription drug costs, and a quality-of-life ordinance. Council candidates Andy Dodds, Randy May, Sophia Travis, Michael Woods and Warren Henegar, and commissioner candidates Joyce Poling, Iris Kiesling, Mike Englert and Jeff Ellington all participated in the event. All candidates said they would support the training of police officers on mental health issues by helping establish a crisis intervention team, based on a program used by Fort Wayne police officers. The training helps officers deal with citizens who have mental illness problems. "Jail isn't the proper place for someone with a mental illness," Woods said. May and Dodds said they would support such a program, provided a funding source could be found. Candidates also gave support to expanding the Community Health Access Program, which gives health-care options to those who could not otherwise afford them. Again, funding dominated many of the responses. "CHAPs is a program that provides health care with dignity for those who are underserved," Travis said. "We want to do the best we can to help, but how much can we do without burdening taxpayers?" May asked. State legislative candidates including Peggy Welch, Vi Simpson, Matt Pierce and Dale Cassidy, along with a representative of 9th District U.S. Rep. Baron Hill, were pressed further on health-care issues, including importing drugs from Canada. All agreed that it was a decision for the federal government, but most seemed to support the idea behind it. "We need to pool our resources to reduce the costs and prevent our citizens from breaking the law," said Welch, referring to the number of Hoosiers who travel to Canada to fill prescriptions. All candidates are up for election on Nov. 2. Reporter James Boyd can be reached at 331-4370 or by e-mail at jboyd@heraldt.com.