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In Arizona, I was surprised when I moved here ten years ago from Kansas. There are mental health services available to anyone who qualifies as a "seriously mentally ill person" including psychiatric, case management, support, counseling, hospitalization and medications. It is free of charge. You can, of course, choose to seek services on private pay. But this service is not dependent upon income. It is only for the chronically mentally ill. You do have to apply and prove a chronic condition exists. So, a person who is for the most part healthy but experiences, say, clinical depression following the death of a loved one, wouldn't qualify. I participate in this program. I do not know the history behind the establishment of this program. My best guess is it might have something to do with the homeless populations in our state. Because we have such favorable weather year round, our homeless population is quite high.
It is not a perfect program and is plagued by problems and lapses in service. But if we did not have it, there would be a lot of seriously ill people on the streets.
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 Vickie
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