[NYAPRS Enews] AP: State MH Budget Cuts Mean Waiting Lists, Shuttered Programs

[Harvey Rosenthal]

For Mentally Ill, Massive State Budget Cuts Mean Waiting Lists,
Shuttered Programs, Less Care

By Associated Press November 10, 2011

 

Modest increases in some states' mental health budgets have done little
to erase massive cuts nationwide over the past three years and a
reduction in Medicaid funds, according to a report to be released
Thursday by the nation's largest mental health advocacy group.

 

All told, the Washington-based National Alliance on Mental Illness
found, 28 states and the District of Columbia have cut nearly $1.7
billion from their mental health budgets since the 2009 fiscal year.

 

Among the other 22 states, mental health budgets increased about $487
million, though NAMI cautioned that spending was offset by legislatures'
funding cuts to Medicaid, the largest public payer of mental health
care.

Medicaid spending was not included in the report, nor was spending that
might come from other areas of a state budget, such as for mental health
housing assistance or programs under child and family service budgets.

 

Had they been, NAMI says the level of cuts would have been even higher.

 

"The system is staggered," said Mike Fitzpatrick, executive director of
NAMI. "Many of the services that existed either no longer exist or exist
in such small amounts you have decreased services, waiting lists backing
up, crowded emergency rooms."

 

Three large states - California, New York and Illinois - collectively
accounted for a staggering $1.2 billion in mental health budget cuts
since the 2009 fiscal year, according to the report.

 

But cuts have been pervasive across the country, exacerbated by the
expiration in June of $87 billion in federal stimulus money to state
Medicaid programs. Some legislatures made up for the shortfall by
shifting more dollars to their Medicaid programs, but NAMI says that
sometimes came at the expense of mental health services paid for outside
the Medicaid system, which only assists the poorest.

 

The cuts come as mental health care providers report record demand in
the sagging economy. Fitzpatrick said patients have grown used to a
pattern in which programs are slowly reduced until they disappear.

 

"Services exist one year, the next year they're chipped away at, the
third year they're eliminated," he said.

While most of the states that cut their mental health budgets trimmed by
single-percentage-point rates, a number of states slashed funding even
more sizably, as much as 39 percent in South Carolina since the 2009
fiscal year.

 

In Greer, S.C., Kelly Troyer has felt the impact as she struggles to
care for her 18-year-old son, Alex McAbee, who suffers from bipolar
disorder, autism and mental retardation and is covered under the state
Medicaid system.

 

He no longer has a case manager to find him services; that job falls to
his mother. The waiting list for mental health housing numbers
thousands, so his mother is paying out of pocket. It can take months to
get an appointment with a mental health professional.

 

"If my child had diabetes, if my child had cancer, we could have all the
services in the world," Troyer said. "In our country, we treat our
animals better than we treat people who have mental illness."

 

Among the states with the largest cuts were Illinois, which cut funding
by 31.7 percent since the 2009 fiscal year; Nevada, which cut by 28.1
percent; and California, which cut by 21.2 percent.

 

Those cuts have continued even as some states' revenue forecast
improved, the report said.

California cut $177.4 million from its mental health budget between the
2011 and 2012 fiscal years, New York cut $95.2 million, Illinois cut
$62.2 million and North Carolina cut $48.2 million.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/for-mentally-ill-m
assive-state-budget-cuts-mean-waiting-lists-shuttered-programs-less-care
/2011/11/10/gIQA3IH86M_story.html

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