Letter: Help save mental health funds (March 5)
Reducing effective community mental health services results in an increase of state and local costs elsewhere. Yet, once again, the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to divert Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) funds to the State General Fund.
Some 66.5 percent of California’s voters rejected an almost identical diversion plan (Proposition 1E) in a special election last May. The current proposal not only ignores the public will, but also purports to double the size of last year’s attempted raid.
Cutting MHSA programs simply doesn’t make economic sense. They successfully direct individuals with serious mental illness away from more expensive, “last resort” options such as emergency medical care, long-term nursing home care, state hospitals, juvenile justice, jails and prisons, into less expensive community based mental health care.
MHSA funds are providing Madera County with an impressive array of programs that deliver a range of services, from prevention and early intervention to intensive wraparound services.
Madera County Full Service Partnerships service people with mental health conditions across the age range from early childhood to older adults. Since they began providing service in 2006 the people enrolled in these programs have experienced an:
– 85 percent decrease in homelessness
– 72 percent decrease in hospitalization
– 74 percent decrease in incarceration
– 81 percent decrease in arrests
– 52 percent decrease in school suspensions
– 75 percent increase in school attendance
– 61 percent decrease in out-of-home placement
– 55 percent increase school grades
If the governor’s proposal is approved, additional statewide costs include losses of:
– At least half a billion dollars in federal Medicaid (Medi-Cal) funds annually.
– County-based mental health assistance for returning Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans.
– Mental health services for the increasing number of inmates being released from state prisons
– A total of $1.75 billion over two years if additional addition federal aid to California is not received, decimating California’s community mental health system.
MHSA is virtually the only funding source remaining for community-based public mental health programs. Given our current economic downturn, diverting these funds to State General Fund obligations is tantamount to completely dismantling public mental health services.
Please, reject the governor’s proposal to divert MHSA funds to the State General Fund. Let your representatives know that it is unacceptable to balance the budget on the backs of California’s most vulnerable populations, while increasing costs to taxpayers.
Gwendolyn Palmer,
Madera
