While financial circumstances in Athens County exempt it from statewide mental health care budget cuts, local providers still struggle with funding problems.
In September and December, Gov. Ted Strickland asked mental health care providers to make cuts to fiscal year 2009 budgets, Communications Director Trudy Sharp said in an e-mail on behalf of the Ohio Department of Mental Health.
But Athens, Hocking and Vinton counties are not required to reduce the $18 million budget that funds 11 local and regional mental health care agencies, Sharp stated.
The Department of Mental Health cut the subsidy to the community health care boards by more than $30 million, she said. Of the 50 boards in Ohio, 44 of them were asked to reduce their budgets.
Because of poor financial circumstances, the Athens-Hocking-Vinton 317 Board and the remaining five boards were exempt from making any additional cuts.
But health care providers in the tri-state area continue to struggle with underfunding.
The Gathering Place, 7 N. Congress St., is one of the three agencies within Athens Mental Health Inc. that offers both counseling and help in connecting people to housing and employment opportunities.
In response to previous budget cuts, The Gathering Place had to omit its community support staff, reduce its hours of operation and cut back on its outreach services such as transportation for those without cars, Executive Director Scott Kreps said.
With the economy as it is
mental health is generally the last priority he said.
And as the stress of economic constraints pushes people toward counseling services, the effect of budget cuts on mental health care providers will worsen, Kreps added.
More people are unable to afford insurance or lose Medicaid eligibility and seek out agencies, such as The Gathering Place, that require neither, he said.
In addition, fiscal year 2010 is expected to bring budget cuts to all mental health care providers, said Earl Cecil, executive director of the 317 Board.
The state needs to properly fund mental health care he said. As far as the funding of the system
it has been neglected for so long.
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Laura Service
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