If state agencies have to cut a quarter of their spending, here's what those cuts could look like. Important: These cuts merely illustrate the possible impact; no decisions have been made.
- Ohio's subsidized child-care and preschool programs would be slashed by $300 million, forcing about 56,000 children from the programs.
- Alcohol- and drug-treatment services would be eliminated for more than 10,000 Ohioans, and prevention services chopped for another 15,000.
- An additional mental-health hospital would have to be closed (two were shut down last year), and several counties (many in Appalachia) that rely on the state for mental-health services would be cut off.
- State mental retardation and developmental disabilities officials would have to send about half of the 1,459 patients in state hospitals to other facilities or home.
- Enrollment would be severely restricted in the popular PASSPORT program, which provides in-home services aimed at keeping the elderly in their homes as long as possible. The changes are expected to create a wait list of 6,500; there is none today.
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Sunday, December 14, 2008
Ohio budget cuts may send disabled people in institutions home
From a sidebar about budget cuts in The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio. Here are some of the cuts that might affect programs connected to people with disabilities.