Budget Plan Calls for Cuts to Mental Health Programs

By Rebecca Rosen Lum, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Apr. 26–Impassioned speakers told Contra Costa supervisors Tuesday that many of the cuts proposed by the county administrator ultimately will cost more than they save.

More than 300 people, including county health workers, representatives from community organizations and consumers, packed the county administration building for a public hearing on the draft budget.

County Administrator John Cullen has proposed a $1.25 billion budget for the 2006-07 fiscal year that includes $20 million in cuts from the current spending plan. The supervisors will vote on the budget Tuesday.

The plan would trim staff, many in mental health programs; close public health clinic pharmacies; lay off health center security guards; and shutter Summit Center, a residential treatment facility for boys.

Slicing mental health services will result in more-costly hospitalizations, critics charged.

"When cuts are made to children’s mental health services, they don’t go away," said Carol Hatch, retired district manager for U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez. "They reappear in other systems — probation, social services."

Cullen acknowledged that some of the reductions could backfire.

"Based on our assessment, they are going to save us money in the upcoming budget year," Cullen said after the six-hour session. "In the long term, they could cost us. That’s why the board asked us to monitor (programs) in the upcoming year for unanticipated costs."

The supervisors asked Cullen to research alternatives to cutting security guards and Healthy Start outreach workers, who help the uninsured obtain health coverage. They also asked him to investigate the possibility that Proposition 36 funds for substance abuse treatment will increase, thus saving planned treatment reductions. A woman whose two brothers died of AIDS credited a county public health worker with keeping them out of the hospital.

"My brother went to the hospital once, and the tab was $300,000," said Judy Chun. "She was able to keep them out of the hospital and let them die at home."

Neil Stratten of the Juvenile Justice Commission asked why the county should close the Summit Center, which he called a model program.

"The alternative is to send (residents) to other facilities at more expense," he said. "We’re at a loss to understand how this helps balance the budget."

The county’s probation chief, Lionel Chatman, said that if the center could get licensed as a group home, which is a possibility, it could tap state and federal funds.

Mental health services already have taken $8 million in cuts over the past five years, said Mike Cornwall, chairman of the county Mental Health Coalition.

County physician Kimberly Duir drew applause for an impassioned speech in which she volunteered to take a 5 percent pay cut to preserve essential services and called on her colleagues to join her.

Rebecca Rosen Lum covers county government. Reach her at 925-977-8506 or rrosenlum@cctimes.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

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