Sandra Wolfe has legal custody of two young boys who have been getting help with emotional problems at Compass Health in Everett.
Recently, she was told that Carol Good, a counselor who has been helping the boys, is being laid off. Good has worked at Compass for 13 years, specializing in helping children 6 and younger.
“Special-needs children have a hard time trusting,” Wolfe said. “These two kids have learned to trust Carol Good.”
Good is one of 12 employees in Snohomish County, including seven counselors, being laid off by Compass Health, said Terry Clark, a development director for the mental health agency.
Each counselor helps 40 to 50 individuals or families, Clark said. Remaining staff are struggling with how to add additional people to their workloads.
“In reality, people will get less frequent or shorter services,” Clark said.
Good said some of the children she works with have severe mental health issues, having experienced abuse, neglect and other trauma. Some battle depression or anxiety, she said.
Good said she feels bad for the families and children who will have to adjust to the changes of getting a new counselor. She said she was told Compass either had to make cuts or it wouldn’t break even.
The nonprofit organization provides counseling services to 12,000 children and adults each year in the county. It provides similar services in Island, Skagit and San Juan counties.
The agency is facing federal and state cuts of about $100,000 a month in its four-county operations starting in January, forcing layoffs, Clark said.
Any time a change is made with a client who has been working with a counselor, it’s tough to make a switch, she said, especially if the client is a child.
“They get bonded with that counselor,” she said. “It’s difficult to shift to another.”
The layoffs of counselors and other staff are just the most recent example of cuts to mental health services, Clark said.
“The mental health system is really in a difficult place, not just here in Snohomish County but across the whole state,” she said.
In the past two years, Compass has eliminated the equivalent of 137 full-time positions in its four-county system, Clark said
“Honestly, the government is not going to support mental health to the degree that the community will need,” she said.
The public stepped in to save one local Compass program, the Everett drop-in center for mentally ill homeless adults. It was closed in January because of budget cuts, but reopened in May, in part through donations from a March fundraiser at the Historic Everett Theatre.
“That was a wonderful example of the community saying, ‘Wait a minute. We care about this.’ That’s how these other services will be saved,” Clark said.
With other recent donations, including $15,000 from the city of Everett, the center has funding to keep its doors open for the next 12 months, Clark said.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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