CLINTON —
The future of mental health in Clinton County is looking grim with severe budget cuts coming out of the mental health redesign.
Bridgeview Community Health Center, the county’s only psychiatric care facility, will face a $465,000 budget cut.
“We can’t cut that kind of money,” Bridgeview CEO Marcia Christiansen said. “That is 16 percent of our budget.”
State legislators passed a bill on mental health and disability redesign in late May. All counties will move toward a statewide average in property taxes collected for mental-health services at $47.28. Some counties, like Clinton, will take large cuts, while others will see little change. Currently Clinton County taxpayers pay $58, with the new tax rate the county will lose more than $10 per taxpayer leading to a $1 million budget cut for the county’s mental health services.
The bill was brought forward as a way to even out services available across the state. Counties now raise about $125 million annually from those taxes, but their tax rates vary widely, leading to vastly different levels of service in different areas of the state.
This new bill also will completely eliminate mental health block grants. Bridgeview will lose its $465,000 block grant as a result of the changes, effective Oct. 1. On May 21, Bridgeview was notified of a $100,000 loss to its grant and on Aug. 29 were told the grant would be eliminated completely.
“Bridgeview is cutting some staff’s hours, a handful of employees have voluntarily taken pay cuts, the future of some educational programs is on the rocks, and a staff person has resigned and the position will not be filled,” School Programs Coordinator Jocelyn Meyer said.
Plans for what programs would need to be cut have not yet been established, but the employees at the center are taking steps to pursue a better future even when they odds are against them.
“We have been lobbying and talking to legislators,” Christiansen said. “We are also continuing to look at grants, but it’s not very likely we will find one to make up for the one we have lost.”
Besides contacting local legislators, there is not a lot the center can do, but wait.
“If this continues every year, we don’t have a future,” Christiansen said. “We helped over 4,000 people last year. If we shut down there is nowhere for them to go. We are the only psychiatric care facility in Clinton.”
The community health center has had many different names, but has been the center for mental health for the area for 42 years. It has only been Bridgeview for six years. Those seeking mental health services face dire circumstances along with providers.
“We will very likely have to cut some jobs,” Christiansen said. “More staff generates more income, so it’s really not going to help to get rid of positions, but we will have to.”
In the future, Bridgeview will offer very limited services if any at all. As the community mental health center, they help a lot of people on Medicaid and Medicare, operating on a deficit, according to Christiansen.
“Most of these people don’t have the resources to go somewhere else for treatment like Scott County,” Christiansen said. “We will have to operate on reserve funding we have built up. It’s extremely hard when you’re a non-profit, so you are already operating on nothing. I really hope something changes.”
The number of people seeking services grows every year and the amount of funding will continue to decrease, not a good formula for the outlook of Bridgeview. Several other local mental health agencies in the area are expected to suffer from redesign budget cuts including Pathway Living Center, Cornerstone Wellness Center and Clinton County Case Management.
Local News
September 22, 2012
Severe cuts paint ‘grim’ future for mental health care
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