Mental illness has reached epidemic proportions across America and certainly here in Alabama. The need for substance abuse treatment far outpaces available services and the homeless crisis is driven by too many poor souls in desperate need of unavailable mental healthcare. Military veterans are more acutely affected. Since 2017, drug overdose deaths have increased 500%, and veterans are 25% of those deaths despite being only 8% of the population. Veteran suicide rates are 57.3% higher than the rest of society.

The need is great, but there is ample money available. The Alabama Department of Mental Healthcare (ADMH) administers about $1.3 billion annually through its subordinate “310 boards.” Yet according to Forbes, Alabama is the third worst state for mental healthcare. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 794,000 adults in Alabama have a mental health condition. ADMH boasts of treating about 5,000 patients a year, but that’s only 0.6% of those suffering and more than a quarter million dollars per patient. Where is the money going?

The ADMH and its providers seldom mention veterans and have no specific programs for veterans, but fortunately for Alabama Veterans the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs (ADVA) has been proactive and successful in supporting numerous non-profit organizations bringing sorely needed mental healthcare to veterans.

Under the tireless leadership of the current ADVA Commissioner, RADM Kent Davis, USN(ret), ADVA has placed Veteran Service Officers around the state to help veterans obtain benefits, expanded the Alabama State Veterans Cemetery, and finally built a much needed fifth veterans Home. Serving selflessly, Commissioner Davis travels the state to listen to veterans and meet their needs, and is well known to Alabama veterans. So, veterans were shocked, disappointed, and then incensed that Governor Kay Ivey called for his resignation.

A slap in the face of veterans, Governor Ivey’s demand is also disconcerting to average Alabama citizens. The state bureaucracy is rife with troubled officials with questionable conduct and unsatisfactory performance, yet they continue without accountability. With all the problems at the Alabama Department of Transportation, the Alabama Ethics Commission, and the Alabama Board of Pharmacy, to name a few, why is Governor Ivey targeting the one state official doing a good job and pleasing his constituents?

The short answer is the ADVA inadvertently encroached on the mental healthcare monopoly held by the ADMH and its perfunctory “310 Boards.” Grassroots and non-profit organizations around the state have risen to the challenge to bring mental healthcare to our most affected group – veterans. Despite steadfast obstruction by the ADMH, one particular private organization, Vets Recover, in Mobile has built and opened an urgently needed inpatient facility to treat PTSD and substance abuse including a DETOX facility. The state is woefully short of this type of facility, and the only other one is in Birmingham. This is a huge benefit for all citizens and a big win for veterans.

Commissioner Davis has supported these efforts and worked with legislators to obtain state funding to bring more services to veterans. Despite veterans suffering opioid overdoses at twice the rate of non-veterans, none of the $20 million opioid settlement was earmarked for veterans, but an agreement was made with ADMH for $7 million of America Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to be granted to ADVA for veterans' mental healthcare. The ADVA board used a third-party committee to rank and recommend which programs were deserving. The ADVA would distribute those funds to some 30 organizations actually serving veterans on the ground.

That never happened because the ADMH unilaterally withdrew from the agreement. Presumably this agreement was voided because the lobbyists at the Alabama Council of Behavioral Healthcare objected to any funds being administered outside of the ADMH’s “310 Boards,” the folks overseeing the current crisis in mental illness. In the ensuing dispute, Commissioner Davis filed an ethics complaint against the ADMH which apparently drew the ire of Governor Ivey. That ethics complaint was inexplicably dismissed by the folks putting their kids through college with the Mabel Amos Scholarship Fund.

Despite Commissioner Davis’s demonstrable record of success, Governor Ivey alleges he has served our veterans poorly and even accuses him of mishandling ARPA funds. That’s quite bizarre considering the Governor’s office without ADVA input granted $1.9 million dollars of COVID funds to a supposed veteran’s group, Priority Soldier, Inc, but that unknown group has been charged with fraud by the FBI – no word from Governor Ivey.

What about the $1.3 billion spent by ADMH for failing mental healthcare? In the interest of Alabama citizens, Governor Ivey should audit both the ADVA and ADMH, but that’s the rub. While ADVA is small and quite transparent, the enormous ADMH shuns such scrutiny for fear of their monopoly. So, it appears the root issue is ADVA’s success highlights the ADMH’s inefficiencies, and therefore, the ADVA must be removed from the equation.

Governor Ivey cannot fire Commissioner Davis, because he is hired by the ADVA Board which is made up of representatives nominated by various veteran service organizations, and he had refused to resign. So, she had called an emergency meeting of the ADVA Board for September 10, to presumably pressure them to fire Commissioner Davis. If they resist, will she dismiss the board?

Oddly enough, this is exactly why the ADVA Board was created this way. The ADVA Board was established in 1945 by returning WWII veterans to serve their needs. The ADVA Board is filled with veterans nominated by veterans, and they hire the ADVA Commissioner rather than suffer some political appointee. This arrangement was specifically intended to protect the ADVA from cronyism and remove it from the putrid back-room politics of Goat Hill. So now comes Governor Ivey to undermine that arrangement.

Mental healthcare in Alabama is clearly inadequate and except for the ADVA efforts failing our veterans, but the ADVA and the incredible non-profits around the state have made miraculous progress in veterans mental healthcare. Rather than support our veterans and let veterans take care of veterans, Governor Ivey has chosen to side with the lobbyists to protect the ADMH monopoly over mental healthcare funding. She is wrong and her character assassination of upstanding veterans like Commissioner Davis and ADVA Board member, Col. John Kilpatrick, USAR, is an insult to all Alabama veterans.

If the ADMH’s power play to end the ADVA’s role in veteran’s mental healthcare is successful, the numerous non-profit programs for veterans will be in jeopardy as ADMH eliminates competition to further concentrate their power. Governor Ivey managed to get Davis to resign Monday afternoon. The specifics are still unknown, but she and the ADMH have removed their most visible obstacle to their designs and Alabama veterans have lost a champion.

“The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful” (Proverbs 12:5).

Pete Riehm is a Navy Veteran, conservative activist, and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.