Friday, January 31, 2003

Fiscal Challenges Await State Mental Health Program Directors
Article in Mental Health Weekly at Medscape - "States are facing yet another difficult fiscal year of enormous budget shortfalls and escalating budget deficits, which so far in the mental health field have prompted facility closings, workforce reductions, hiring freezes, and dwindling resources while states try to grapple with escalating prescription drug costs." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

National Champion of People with Mental Illnesses Dies
At the NAMI web site - "Richard T. (Dick) Greer, 76, who in the 1980s helped spearhead the drive to refocus the federal government’s research efforts toward the biological basis for mental illnesses and to increase research funding and community services, died of acute leukemia on January 13, 2003 at his Arlington, Virginia home."  
  

CMH expects cuts to exceed $1.26 million (Michigan)
Midland Daily News story - "State budget cuts could total more than $1.26 million for the six-county Community Mental Health for Central Michigan."  
  

Health care advocates decry aid cuts (Massachusetts)
Boston Globe story - "A day after Governor Mitt Romney announced $133 million in cuts to health and human service programs, the leader of a statewide health advocacy group lamented what he characterized as the continued dismantling of the Commonwealth's health care system and called for the restoration of funding to serve the state's neediest residents."  
  

Cuts to balance state's books will turn lives upside-down (Oregon)
Story in The Oregonian - "The morning after Oregon voters rejected a tax increase, the state reprogrammed its computers for dozens of health and social programs due to shrink or vanish at midnight tonight," including "the General Assistance Program for 2,700 disabled and low-income Oregonians unable to work; round-the-clock mental health crisis service in most counties; and long-term care help that keeps older Oregonians out of nursing homes."  
  

Apartments for mentally ill put on hold (Iowa)
Story in the Iowa City Press-Citizen - "Having missed a deadline to apply for a city grant, a local agency's plan to build apartments for people with mental illnesses has been placed on hold."  
  

New Cuts Hit Mental Health, Safety Net, And Kids' Programs (Connecticut)
Story in The Day - "Gov. John G. Rowland swung his budget ax again this week, unilaterally ordering $40 million in budget cuts and leaving key mental health, “safety net,” and child development programs without enough funds to finish the fiscal year."