Mental health advocates in Texas say budget cuts will send many mentally ill people into homelessness

From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas:

Proposed cuts in the state's mental-health budget could have dramatic effects on those with psychiatric illnesses at a time when more people are seeking help to cope with the stresses of a sour economy, mental-health advocates say.

Without community services, more people suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and serious depression are going to show up on the streets, in emergency rooms or in jails, said Susan Garnett, deputy CEO for Mental Health Mental Retardation Tarrant County.

"They are not going to wait quietly at home," she said.

More than 6,000 adults in Tarrant County -- 65 percent of them with no insurance -- receive mental-health services every month through MHMR community programs. But those services will be harder for the poor to access under the state's proposed $134 million cut in mental-health programs.

The largest chunk -- $80 million -- would affect 39 community mental-health centers. But mental-health crisis and transitional services stand to lose $10 million, and the budget for the state's five psychiatric hospitals would be reduced by $44 million.

With Texas facing a possible $18 billion budget shortfall, the Department of State Health Services and other agencies were ordered to cut their budgets by an additional 10 percent after proposing 5 percent cuts in 2010-11. The agency's nearly $246 million in proposed cuts includes funding for children with special healthcare needs, immunizations and other programs.

The Legislature will consider the cuts next year. The exact impact in Tarrant County is unknown, but mental-health organizations are bracing for the worst.

Available programs will either be discontinued or money will have to be shifted from other areas to keep them going, said Joan Barcellona, who serves on the MHMR children's advisory committee. The mobile crisis team, which helps stabilize individuals in their homes so they avoid hospitalization, is one program that could be at risk.

"It's going to be pretty dramatic, we do know that," said Patsy Thomas, president of the Mental Health Connection.

Demand for psychiatric services has surged in the past decade, particularly as the recession has roiled the job market. From 2000 to 2009, there was a steep increase -- from 6,133 patients to 14,650 -- in visits to the Psychiatric Emergency Center operated by the Tarrant County Hospital District.

The situation will only get worse with cuts in state funding, said Ramona Osburn, director of behavioral-health services at Texas Health Springwood.

"There's going to be a revolving door of mentally ill people who are not being treated," she said. "They'll survive on their own but only until there's a crisis or until they hurt themselves or someone else."

For people already dealing with a serious mental illness, the economy can be a complicating factor, said Wayne Young, executive director of the psychiatry department at JPS.

"It's another layer of stressors that they have a hard time managing," he said.