MADISON – He’s dodged and deflected, but now even Scott Walker’s own budget numbers show the neglect he’s given Milwaukee County’s mental health programs, already facing staffing crises and calls for reform after custodial deaths and rapes.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate on Wednesday called for Scott Walker to properly staff the facility and to answer publicly for various troubling policies at the facility, including a policy in which violent male patients were placed among female patients, reportedly resulting in sexual assaults.
Behavioral Health Division officials have called for $14 million in additional funding for the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex. According to the Journal Sentinel, the BHD needs to “add 43 more nurses, aides and administrators and to train them better. That request comes on the heels of critical state and federal inspections of the complex.” (MilwaukeeJournal Sentinel, 06/22/10)
That is, on the heels of critical EXISTING staff shortfalls at Scott Walker’s troubled complex.
“Will Scott Walker finally step up, do the right thing and commit the resources the Mental County Health Complex requires to serve the needs of its patients” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Mike Tate asked Wednesday, “or will Walker do what he always does – neglect his responsibility and continue his reckless mismanagement by refusing to provide what MCHC needs?”
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