ALERT
March 11, 2011
PLEASE CONTACT HOUSE BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS BETWEEN NOW AND NEXT WEDNESDAY
We must be vocal to protect mental health funding from proposed cuts!
Budget action was delayed a week so the budget subcommittees will begin making decisions on proposed FY 2012 budget cuts beginning next week. The House Health and Human Resources Subcommittee decision meeting is scheduled for 1pm on Wednesday, March 16. It is crucial that subcommittee members hear from you between now and next Wednesday!
Key messages are the following:
- Reject any and all cuts to Public Mental Health Services
- Preserve funding for Maryland’s Residential Treatment Centers
Background Information
On top of the 2.5% community services rate and core service agency cuts included in the Governor’s FY 2012 proposed budget (a loss of $10 million), the legislative budget analyst has proposed additional cuts of $4.9 million to the Public Mental Health System (PMHS). These cuts would reduce residential treatment services for children and youth ($4.2 million), eliminate chaplains at Spring Grove and Springfield State Hospitals ($ 0.2 million), reduce funding for the Veterans Mental Health Initiative ($0.3 million) and earmark inpatient service funds for a study of future hospital needs ($0.2 million). These cuts come at a time of astronomical growth in service need. The PMHS is projected to be serving 139,000 individuals in FY 2012, 40% more individuals than the 99,000 individuals served in FY 08. Yet, in calendar year 2009 alone, the PMHS absorbed $57 million in cuts.
A sample letter is included below but your message will be most effective if it is tailored by you and shares your personal feelings about the need and why this issue is important to you
The following is a list of subcommittee members that are key to preventing cuts to mental health services. Please contact them now!
Delegate Mary-Dulany James
(410) 841-3331
Delegate Keith E. Haynes
(410) 841-3801
Delegate Adelaide “Addie” C. Eckardt
(410) 841-3343
Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez
(410) 841-3181
Delegate Adrienne A. Jones
(410) 841-3391
Delegate Tony McConkey
(410) 841-3406
Delegate James E. Proctor, Jr.
(410) 841-3083
If you send an email please be sure to include “I support full funding for Mental Health” in the subject line to ensure your message is appropriately counted.
Sample Letter/Message to Legislators
Dear Delegate:
Community mental health services in Maryland are at the breaking point. The number of people served by the public mental health system has increased by 40% at the same time that $57 million in budget cuts have reduced services. Without your help, more reductions are on the way.
Please help the rising number of children, adults and families in need of mental health care in our community who are unable to get the treatment they need due to the chronic underfunding of mental health services by:
§ Rejecting any cuts to public mental health services
§ Preserving funding for Maryland’s Residential Treatment Centers
Vulnerable citizens are counting on you to ensure they are able to get the care they need so that they can recover and participate fully in community life. We are counting on you to ensure that Marylanders living with mental illness have equal opportunity for a future.
Sincerely,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(WUSA) -- Mental illness. Just the two words scare a lot of us. Especially after the attacks in Tucson and at Virginia Tech.
This week, Maryland's governor announces a plan to train people at every community college in the state in what's called Mental Health First Aid.
It's a ground-breaking program that's already saving lives.
At the Mental Health Association in Rockville, two dozen staffers from Montgomery College gathered recently to learning a simple way to remember the five steps in mental health first aid. It's a memory device that goes by the name ALGEE:
1) Assess the risk of suicide or harm.
2) Listen non-judgmentally.
3) Give reassurance and information.
4) Encourage appropriate professional help.
5) Encourage self-help and other support strategies.
Experts say people struggling with mental illness are no more likely than anyone else to commit violent acts. But the attack on the congresswoman in Tucson in January -- allegedly by a young man who been ordered away from a community college for bizarre behavior -- has sparked an upsurge in interest in classes in Mental Health First Aid.
"It resonates with anybody who works at a college, because the first thing you think is 'Is that going to happen here?'" says Harry Zarin, a counselor at Montgomery College who was taking the course.
If someone has a heart attack at work, there's probably someone around who knows CPR or how to work the defibrillator. It may be much tougher to find someone who knows how to handle a mental health crisis.
Tony Wright of the non-profit "On Our Own" took the Mental Health First Aid class a couple of years ago. He recalls a phone call he took from a woman who didn't know where to turn. "She said she couldn't go on anymore. She said she was about to commit suicide."
He spent an hour talking to her and calming her down. About a month later, she called again. "I went to the phone and she said, 'I don't know if you remember me, but we talked on the phone when I was feeling suicidal, and I just want to thank you for saving my life." He says it's a conversation he will never forget.
Advocates are convinced getting more people Mental Health First Aid training can help save many more lives.
9NEWS NOW is sponsoring a Mental Health First Aid training session in the coming weeks at Montgomery College.
Keep an eye on wusa9.com for details.
Written by Bruce Leshan
9News Now & wusa9.com
