Why is Gov. Baldacci proposing draconian funding cuts to community mental health services?

I have worked in the mental health field for more than 23 years, and over the last six years, watched as most rates for mental health services were flat funded. I also watched as much of the grant funding that paid for services to consumers without MaineCare was significantly reduced.

This spring I read the Bangor Daily News and watched the Legislature closely as Gov. Baldacci’s proposed funding cuts to community mental health services were debated.

I read the article written by Nok-Noi Hauger, “Calming a Crisis” (BDN, Feb. 24), where the Crisis Intervention Team training was beginning to be used successfully to divert individuals from an arrest or jail to appropriate services in the community. In the article, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Maine estimated that 51 percent of the inmates in the state’s county jail system are dealing with a mental illness.

I read the article by Glenn Adams, “Maine prison crowding an emergency” (BDN, April 4). Corrections Commissioner Martin Magnusson indicated that 293 inmates currently overcrowd the state prison system. He was quoted as saying, “If we don’t deal with this, I’m afraid of staff getting hurt.” Commissioner Magnusson had requested increased funding of $1.3 million for the rest of fiscal 2007 with an estimated $7.8 million for fiscal 2008. I know that the percentage of inmates in our prisons with mental health issues is similar to those in our jails. Sending people to jail or prison instead of treatment leads to overcrowded jails and prisons and is more costly than treatment.

I read the article by Meg Haskell, “Woman honored for police, jail program” (BDN, April 4). Melissa Gattine was awarded the first-ever Dorothea Dix Award for her work in bringing the Memphis, Tenn.-based CIT program to Maine, which has now expanded to include 20 communities and six county jails. In the article, Gov. Baldacci is quoted as saying the CIT program, “improves the entire community response” for people experiencing a mental health crisis. Additionally, Brenda Harvey, commissioner of the state Department of Health and Human Services, indicated that the CIT program was going to be funded from the state’s general fund to expand the number of communities served to at least 24, including two more county jails.

I read the article by David Hench, “Mentally ill care in jails still flawed” (BDN, Feb. 26). He stated that there were 11 suicides in jails and four in state prisons in the past seven years. Hench notes that NAMI Maine issued a report in response to a federal study last year that showed that nationally 64 percent of jail inmates have a mental illness. The report calls for diverting mentally ill offenders into intensive treatment, which costs about 25 percent of what jail costs and yet is more effective. He quotes Carol Carothers, executive director of NAMI Maine, who says, “Jail instead of treatment costs a lot and doesn’t work.” The article goes on to describe how, in Carothers’ words, millions of dollars in planned cuts to community-based mental health services will affect inmates. The lack of services will increase the likelihood that people with a mental illness will end up in jail or prison and will make it harder for them to get help when they are released.

The costs are borne by our state and local property taxes to continue to provide very expensive institutional care that hasn’t proven to be effective in preventing their return to jail or prison upon release.

I am heartened to know the state is taking an active role in providing additional funding for the CIT program as part of the whole jail diversion programs developed by NAMI Maine, sheriffs departments, many community mental health providers, psychiatric hospitals, police, probation and parole, and the jails and prisons (stakeholders).

However, Gov. Baldacci’s current budget proposal for continued expansion of cuts to the community mental health services through rate cuts, program elimination, and reductions in grant funds reduces many of those very services to which the individuals in crisis are referred.

I believe that cost-effective community-based mental health services are essential to any successful jail diversion and re-entry program. Effective community mental health treatment costs less than jails and prisons, and helps reduce the costs for addressing jail and prison overcrowding. If you agree, please tell your legislators and the governor.

Mark Hedger lives in Brewer.