DMH Closers On Cape Cod
W. K. Mahler, Mahlers.Com
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20090110/NEWS/901100313
By CYNTHIA McCORMICK
cmcco...@capecodonline.com
January 10, 2009
The state Department of Mental Health is laying off half a dozen case
managers on the Cape and Islands who help about 150 clients with
services such as housing, counseling, disability payments and job
interviews.
Advocates for people with mental illness say cuts in DMH staff will
result in reduced services and may end with more people being
hospitalized, incarcerated and homeless.
A spokeswoman for the state said the layoffs - part of a 120-person
reduction in DMH staff across the state - was necessary to save $3.5
million during the state's budget crisis.
The layoff "includes approximately 100 DMH case managers statewide
and approximately 20 other DMH administrative staff," Kristina Barry,
spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Health and Human
Services, wrote in an e-mail. She said DMH is working to make sure
clients of laid-off employees continue to have appropriate services.
But a union representative in Hyannis said the local DMH won't be
able to do the same job with more than a third of its staff being
laid off.
There are currently 15 case managers and two supervisors in the
Hyannis DMH office, said Peter North, a case manager and union
steward for SEIU Local 509.
"Six of the people I work with here aren't going to be here as of the
30th of January," he said. "We're in the process of identifying
people (clients) for case closure."
Five of the case managers being laid off work with adults and one
works with children with mental illness, North said.
The majority of DMH clients served by case managers have chronic or
severe mental illness, said John Labaki, unit chapter president for
the DMH workers in the SEIU Local 509. He said the cuts will reduce
the number of DMH case managers by 20 to 25 percent statewide, posing
a problem for clients who are too ill to advocate for themselves.
Labaki predicted the cuts "will increase hospitalizations,
incarcerations, homelessness and suffering to our clients at a huge
expenditure to taxpayers in the commonwealth." He said since some of
client services are billable to Medicaid, the state also will be
losing federal dollars if services end up being reduced.
"Mental health has been cut disproportionately to other human
services programs," said LeRoy Spaniol, president of NAMI Cape Cod, a
group that advocates for family members with mental illness.
Day treatment programs, employment training and psycho-social
rehabilitation clubs already have had their budgets reduced or
eliminated, he said.
The latest round of cuts, Spaniol said, "could result in people
receiving no treatment or services."
Salary for DMH case managers ranges from about $35,000 to just under
$60,000, Labaki said.
--
William K. Mahler
http://www.netbud.us
http://www.mahlers.com
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