In my long 18-year (FML) history of covering Oklahoma politics, I’d say there hasn’t been a more embattled agency than the Department of Mental Health.
Always cash-strapped, always struggling to meet demand, and always in the news for the wrong reasons, the agency serves as a weary poster child for what happens to state government in deeply red states that are run by morons who want to intentionally underfund and sabotage public services to make them borderline useless and inefficient.
Naturally, these struggles have been amplified in recent years while our state has been operated by a dopey anti-government oligarch who jumped into government not to govern, but to satisfy career ambitions, fight culture wars, and enrich himself and his grifter supporters.
As a result, we frequently get hit with stories like the ones below, that document the agency’s inept budgeting and financial mismanagement:
See what I mean. The agency is a total Stitt shit show! As a businessman governor, he's obviously put someone in charge who knows what they’re doing to fix the agency and not just a pretty face to fight his proxy war against Attorney General Gentner Drummond, right?
Hehe. Just kidding.
The Stitt crony who’s been put in charge of the agency is Allie Friesen. She's obviously in over her head, and seems just as focused on fighting political feuds with Gentner Drummond for Stitt than fixing the mess at the agency.
A board chaired by Gov. Kevin Stitt rejected a landmark mental health settlement, pushing back against the opinions of the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office and a federal judge.
The Contingency Review Board met Tuesday despite Attorney General Gentner Drummond calling the meeting “premature.”
One hour before the meeting began, the commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services announced she had terminated Drummond as counsel because he wasn’t prioritizing her or her agency.
That has to be pretty frustrating for not only the people who need mental health services in our state, but the folks who work inside the agency.
Oh well, at least they can call the 988 mental health line if they’re experiencing a crisis!
Well, at least for now:
Yep, a state that produces mental illness almost as well as it does wheat, oil, and red dirt doesn’t want to fund a mental health helpline. That seems kind of suicidal, but oh well — maybe some other phone line can help pick up the slack.
For example, maybe we can forward those calls to Okie 811?
“Thanks for calling OKIE before you dig. To locate a residential line, press #1. For commercial lines, press #2. For emergency mental health services, press #3.”
If living in a red state that struggles to fund a mental health line — much less an entire mental health department — makes you want to turn to street drugs to self-medicate, I don’t blame you.
On a positive note, at least you won't have to worry as much about an overdose after the mental health department put free Narcan and fent test strips in vending machines for emergencies…
Oh yeah, I forgot.
The Department of Mental Health had to do away with the weird plan because Heath Hayes – Cydni Munson’s BFF – allegedly embezzled from the agency. When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east and she wins the Governor’s race, I wonder if she’ll follow Stitt’s tradition and put him in charge of an agency to really get the grift going?
As I mentioned in the headline, at this point, it feels like the Department of Mental Health needs a heavy dose of therapy — an intervention where key decision-makers gather in a room to read impact letters, cry over past trauma, and – while they’re at it – figure out how to properly run and fund the agency and provide valuable mental health support to Oklahomans of all ages, races, genders, and political identities.
Hell, maybe even Allie Friesen – Stitt’s handpicked choice to run the agency – can put her counseling background to good use and even lead the intervention!
Or, well, maybe not.
Anyway, if you work in the mental health department – or suffer from mental illness and could use resources to help – I’d like to offer my condolences and apologies for being stuck in such a shit hole of a state run by people who don’t care.
Hopefully when a new administration takes control of the state in a couple of years, they can whip the agency into shape and restore it to its normal levels of dysfunction.
In the meantime, if you’re having a mental health emergency and need help, call Okie 811 today.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
