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Letter: Proposed state budget will create crisis for mentally ill

The Cape May Gazette - 5/22/2017

We are on the verge of a mental health crisis in New Jersey. Under the Governor's new funding formula as proposed in the fiscal year 2018 budget, community-based mental health providers will lose significant state funding ? funds that have traditionally made it possible for us to fulfill our mission of providing care for mentally ill patients who have nowhere else to turn.

As someone with 42 years of experience in caring for and treating individuals with mental illness, I can tell you that without adequate funding, community mental health centers will be forced to turn patients away and stop treatment, leading to substantial reductions in care.

New Jersey's non-profit community mental health organizations currently provide a full spectrum of mental healthcare services to the underinsured and uninsured in the state. In Cape May County alone, Cape Counseling Services provides care to 5,500 people suffering from mental illness. Under the proposed funding cuts, we estimate that thousands of Cape May County residents will be left without a viable option for mental health care. We have a moral and ethical responsibility not to let our clients down. They deserve better.

Mental illness invades the lives of one in four adults and one in 10 children. It requires long-term, ongoing professional care. Under the Governor's new funding formula, community mental health providers' reimbursement model will be drastically shifted from the long-utilized deficit funding system to a fee-for-service (FFS) funding system. The state touts this move as being more efficient and effective but in reality, the state's FFS system is based on inadequate reimbursement rates and a lack of funding for many essential expenses that do not fall under the umbrella of "billable" services, including nursing, transportation, building maintenance, operations, and security. Each of these inadequately reimbursed or unreimbursed services is vital to our ability to function as community mental health providers.

Under the new model, community based mental health providers are facing cuts of up to 40 percent of their operating budgets, which will result in severe cuts to services and treatment. Cape Counseling Services will be forced to reduce our outpatient care department by one-third, meaning at least 1,650 mentally ill individuals in Cape May County alone, will be forced to navigate the world without treatment for, often times severe mental illnesses. Services being cut include outpatient therapy (both mental and addiction clinicians), psychiatric evaluations, medication maintenance, adult residential services, supportive housing services, security and clerical and administrative support. My colleagues across the state are all looking at a similar list of possible cuts and weighing the unenviable decision of either cutting care or shutting down.

Unlike the funding for mental health providers, the mentally ill will not simply disappear with the stroke of the governor's pen. With tens of thousands across the state at risk for losing access to critical mental health care, potentially catastrophic results and tragedies are inevitable. The system in place is working for the state, our communities, and families and individuals.

Often, the mentally ill are kept out of jails or hospitals solely because they are participating in an active and effective mental health treatment plan administered by a community mental health provider. The state's shift in funding will lead to an increase in inpatient mental health admissions in hospitals, skyrocketing homelessness, and unsustainable incarceration rates-results that are far more expensive to address, and tear at the fabric of families and entire communities. Without these services provided by community mental health agencies, we can undoubtedly expect an increase in violence, homelessness, police and EMS calls, incarcerations, emergency room usage, school and job absenteeism, and other social problems. Not to mention the financial burden this will place on the state that will eventually force further cuts or tax increases.

Time and time again, community-based mental healthcare has proven to be a more effective and less costly option for treating the mentally ill. The funding system currently in place works and enables non-profit mental health providers to provide comprehensive and long-term care at a price that is far lower and more effective than any alternative treatment. I urge anyone impacted by mental illness to contact their legislators to voice concern over these cuts, and I urge the state to commit to continuing to fund mental health services at its current level. If passed, the proposed funding cuts doom our mental health system to failure, leaving our citizens without access to essential care, with the unacceptable consequence of putting them and our communities at risk.

Greg Speed

Chief Executive Officer

Cape Counseling Services