Inquirer Editorial: More than just a free ride

If there's one key lesson from the growing pains of closing mental hospitals around the country, it's that community-based care for the mentally ill only works when patients receive their medication and other treatment.

So a proposal to halt free rides to rehabilitation centers for psychiatric patients in Pennsylvania - thankfully, now being pulled back for review - clearly was the wrong way to go.

Driven in part by Gov. Corbett's austere state budget, the policy generated an understandable uproar from mental-health advocates, providers, and patients alike.

With thousands of individuals relying on weekly rides to recovery centers where they learn job and life skills, the impact of halting transportation funding for county agencies and providers would have been immediate.

For some patients, it could have represented a setback on their road to recovery - as well as posed dire challenges for families and caregivers trying to cope with someone suffering from illness.

Officials at the state Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services acknowledged as much when they recently informed local agencies that the Corbett administration had realized "the transforming impact of this vital service."

The hope is that the review of the policy will result in its quickly being scrapped altogether. In either case, the reprieve is a welcome indication that Corbett aides are willing to recalibrate their approach to spending issues when presented with a compelling set of facts.

Of course, state officials need only have checked the relatively recent history of deinstitutionalization. Decades ago, failing to provide critical community assistance - such as rides to clinics - swelled the ranks of the homeless with mentally ill individuals discharged from state hospitals. There's no need to learn that painful lesson all over again.