Buncombe County’s adult care facilities are receiving more and more young people with mental illness, patients the facilities are not designed for and that staff is not trained to treat, reports Buncombe County’s Adult Care Home Community Advisory Committee. That group will present its report to the Buncombe County Commissioners on Tuesday, Feb. 16.
“The supervisors and staff of adult care and family care homes do not have appropriate training to handle residents with severe, persistent mental illness, thus endangering everyone in the home, including staff,” reads the report.
Additionally, adult care homes located in Buncombe County are straining to support an influx of patients transferred from South Carolina, and some are reaching “unacceptable” levels of disrepair, the report says.
Commissioners will also hear a roundup of conservation easements negotiated last year. In 2009, according to the report, 10 easements were established representing 1,597 acres in Buncombe County. Such easements are granted to property owners who agree to preserve farmland and wooded areas from development in exchange for tax breaks.
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners will meet on 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 16, in the commissioners’ chambers at 30 Valley St. A short pre-meeting review of the agenda will begin at 4:15 p.m. Click here for the complete agenda.
— Brian Postelle, staff writer
Why not use the conservation easements to park , help and heal the mentally ills?
How can we save lands but abandon humans ?….