Testimony: PSR services help mentally ill avoid psychiatric hospitalization

Kelly Keele, a mental health services provider from Rigby, told lawmakers that PSR services - psycho-social rehabilitation services - now being considered for elimination are what enable persons with mental illness to avoid the “revolving door” of psychiatric hospitalization. “If these people were to lose their PSR services they would lose their ability to remain stable,” hold jobs and be productive citizens, Keele said. He called for increasing taxes on beer, wine and cigarettes, repealing the grocery tax credit and imposing sales taxes on Internet sales rather than cutting these services.

Gregory Dickerson of Nampa, who is with Mental Health Human Supports of Idaho, said, “Eliminating PSR services for adults would cause many unintended consequences and will not result in the cost savings Idaho desperately needs.”