By slashing these programs, experts say the state will force more people to use emergency rooms or end up in the criminal justice system, which will cost the state more. In Illinois, where Democratic Governor Pat Quinn is trying to bridge a $13 billion budget gap, a proposed mental-health budget cut of $91 million was reduced to $35 million after patients and practitioners protested at the governor's mansion earlier this month. Even so, advocates say more than 70,000 people, including 4,200 children, are in danger of losing basic community services, which may result in more instances of hospitalization. The cuts come on the heels of a court settlement requiring the state to transfer 4,500 severely mentally disabled patients out of nursing homes and into community residential facilities following a string of rapes and assaults on elderly residents. Mississippi has cut its mental health budget by about 8 percent for three consecutive years, resulting in the closure of a residential mental health facility for adolescents, elimination of 184 beds in one of the state's biggest psychiatric hospitals and consolidation of six crisis centers with existing community mental health centers. In the fiscal year that started July 1, the state plans to further cut funding to localities for mental health services. Prior to the recession, Mississippi lagged far behind most states in funding community services and housed the highest percentage of people with mental illness in state institutions.
--Contact Christine Vestal at cvestal@stateline.org See related stories: See With Medicaid, states face painful cuts and few choices (5/26/2010) See States make deep cuts to health (8/5/2009)
Advice from someone who has been there: Visit NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. This is the premier connection on the web to get help and access resources. ~ Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans
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