Mental health consumers protest budget cuts

 

Mental health service providers and consumers are taking a stance against budget cuts the Santa Barbara County Alcohol Drug and Mental Heath Department is proposing for its 2008-2009 budget.

More than 50 people lined the steps and sidewalk in front of the Santa Barbara County City Hall building April 15 to protest the proposed cuts.

Holding signs, passing out literature and requesting signatures for petitions, mental health consumers and community service providers shouting their message from the mountain top: No More Cuts.

 

The protest was in response to the department’s proposed Fiscal 2009 budget, which calls for $8.4 million in cuts and a 24 percent reduction from current service levels.

The department has blamed portions of its deficit on the state’s refusal to pay MediCal and Medicare reimbursements on time.

“We know it’s tough times, but it’s time we all sit down together and figure this thing out,” said Barry R. Schoer, executive director for Sanctuary Psychiatric Centers, a mental health community service provider.

 

“Stop blaming the state and start taking responsibility.”

Many people in the community service provider community are placing the responsibility of the proposed cuts on the recent administration turnover at the department.

Dr. Ann Detrick was hired as the new director in January.

“The new director had an opportunity to come in and do something different,” said Mike Foley, Casa Esperanza’s executive director.

“When we said ‘we want to work with you and restructure your system,’ they said ‘we want to reduce our budget’ When we said ‘we want to grow your system’ they said ‘we want to shirk it’ and that’s just not acceptable.”

“We’ve offered help and want to take part in fixing the problem, but they said ‘thanks but no thanks,’” Foley added.

 

Foley said he understands that the department is trying to stay out of the red, but added that there were better ways to go about that goal than cutting programs.

He proposed that the department turn over much of its mental health services to non-profits that could receive donations from philanthropists.

“They should do the things they do well and leave the rest to non-profits that can do a better job,” he said. 

The protest followed a two-month long debacle between the department and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, which decided to bail the mental health program out of its current $6.9 million deficit with reserve funds over three months.

Third District Supervisor Brooks Firestone has repeatedly reminded ADMHS that the county had its own deficit to deal with and that it has no money to give to the department.

While other supervisors, including 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal and 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf, have made it clear they want to keep any cuts away from mental health clients.

 

Apparently the Fiscal 2009 proposed departmental budget outlines just the opposite; the budget reveals a 24 percent reduction in services.

Anne Marie Cameron, Mental Health associate director, said that Mental Health’s housing program is slated to be closed as part of the Fiscal 2009 ADMHS budget.

The home houses 14 clients and has been open for 25 years.

She, like many other people, have attributed the severe cuts to the department’s new director.

“I believe she is doing what she’s been told to do,” Cameron said.

“And she’s being told to cut the budget.”

Cameron added that the county can either “pay now or pay later.”

They can either pay for services now or pay up to nine times more when there’s a crises, she said.

 

Cindy Burton, executive director for Work Training Programs, also a service provider that offers mental health services, said that the non-profit’s Kilp House could be closed as a result of ADMHS’ proposed budget. Kilp houses up to 28 people who have mental health disabilities.

“Right now we contract for $1.8 million, that will be reduced to $161,000,” Burton said.

Burton said that in all the years and through many tough budget times, Kilp has never been threatened with elimination.

“People with mental illness need a variety of services for support,” she said.

“If that is taken away, the county will be operating a human service on a crises basis; what a way to operate.”

 

The Board of Supervisors will be hearing and receiving the department’s Fiscal 2009 budget at its April 22 meeting.

The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at the Betteravia Government Center, located at  511 E. Lakeside Parkway in Santa Maria.

For more information or a to view a copy of ADMHS’ Fiscal 2009 proposed budget, visit www.countyofsb.org.