Holding the line on funding for mental health and substance abuse services

The past six weeks has been filled with great uncertainty for community-based mental health and substance abuse treatment providers. Fears of mid-year “9C” budget cuts has kept many providers and consumers up nights worrying about impending cuts to services funded by the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Public Health/Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, and MassHealth.

Fortunately, community-based treatment services were relatively spared from 9C cuts this time. This has been a great relief to members of the Association for Behavioral Healthcare and the consumers with whom we work. Our members feel particularly fortunate when we see the struggles of some colleagues and friends in other parts of the human service world.

There are many reasons why community-based mental health and substance abuse services were spared during this round. The ongoing advocacy of ABH members and our coalition partners such as NAMI – Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Clubhouse Coalition, M-Power, MOAR, and the Recovery Home Collaborative certainly played a role in reinforcing for Governor Patrick and the Legislature the vital role community-based services play in promoting recovery.

Governor Patrick deserves credit for not cutting substance abuse treatment services and thereby honoring commitments to advocates who pushed for the repeal of the sales tax exemption on alcohol. The Governor kept faith with the Campaign for Addiction Prevention, Treatment and Recovery by making sure new revenue was dedicated to expanded treatment.

Health and Human Services Secretary JudyAnn Bigby deserves credit as well for being a forceful advocate for community-based services. Her commitment to preserving community services for individuals living with mental illness as the Commonwealth shuts down state hospitals demonstrated her commitment to Community First.
The Legislature deserves credit for preserving access to vital MassHealth services for people with behavioral health needs such as Day Treatment and Clinical Stabilization Services.

In spite of all this, there are many potential pitfalls ahead of us. The Governor may need to implement further 9C cuts later in this fiscal year. And the outlook for fiscal year 2011 looks even bleaker. State agencies are preparing for potential cuts in the range of 12 – 15%.

So the message we must take away from the past weeks is that while we successfully avoided devastating cuts so far this year, this may only be a temporary reprieve. We need to stay vigilant and continue to educate Governor Patrick and the Legislature about the importance of community-based care. We need to continue to publicize the wonderful work all of ABH members are doing on a daily basis.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the past six weeks and the challenges facing us in the months ahead.