MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATES, OTHERS MAKE STATE FUNDING CASE TO FULL BUDGET PANEL

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Advocates for mental health and other government-funded services made their case for additional funds or no cuts March 31 before the House Finance & Appropriations Committee.

Mental health stakeholders are among groups becoming increasingly vocal with their concerns over the impacts of proposed cuts in the budget.

Representatives of local ADAMH boards raised concerns about a $31 million reduction to their line item within the Department of Mental Health and other issues.

Rod Hollingsworth, executive director of the Muskingum Area ADAMH Board, said the financial squeeze is compounded by a proposed change in how local boards pay when a resident needs care in a state psychiatric hospital. The "significant increase" in costs under a revised formula "would be devastating to our consumers and their family members," he said.

Hubert Wirtz, CEO of the Ohio Council of Behavioral Health & Family Services Providers, said: "The community behavioral health system in Ohio is dangerously close to not being able to sustain itself. Service payment rates have not been increased in 12 years, and the payment structure disincentivises efficiency and uncompensated care. Some provider Medicaid services are now being paid at 80-85% of cost."

Jim Mauro, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Ohio, said funding for the 320,000 Ohioans who receive services through ODMH "has been deteriorating for years."

"There is no question that we are in serious financial difficulty in Ohio and that the state's budget reflects that circumstance," he said. "However, there is a short- and long-term economic advantage to prioritizing and adequately serving the seriously mentally ill. Our failure to meet their needs in the community mental health system will almost immediately shift greater costs to other parts of state and local budgets."

Terry Russell, representing the Ohio Adult Care Facilities Association, spoke in support of the Residential State Supplemental funding in the Department of Aging budget for housing for the mentally ill. The administration has proposed a 20%, or $2 million, cut to RSS, he said.

"Although the agency has assured us that no current participant will lose their supplement, as individuals on the program leave a home, it will be almost impossible to replace that individual with another RSS recipient," Mr. Russell said. "We estimate that more than 200 adult family homes or adult care facilities will close and as many as 2,000 of Ohio's most severely mentally disabled will end up on the streets homeless, in our prisons, jails, or in cemeteries."