People with mental illnesses are turned away from services every day in Washington and the Legislature is now debating actions that would deny services to even more.
The sad truth in Washington is that there are more people with mental illnesses in our communities than can be served. Compass Health is one of the largest community mental health providers in Washington, serving more than 12,000 clients per year throughout Snohomish County. Currently, we have to turn away an average of 360 people with significant mental health issues each year because we are down to the bare bones of our capacity. As such, we are only able to serve those who have the most critical needs.
Governor Locke’s proposal to cut 3 percent of state funding to community mental health services is actually a 6 percent reduction in funding due to the loss of federal matching funds. For Compass Health, this will create a $936,883 budget shortfall, requiring us to cut service to 827 more people and reduce intensity of services to hundreds more.
There’s no fat left to trim in the community mental health system. State and federal dollars have already been reduced. Our United Way funding was cut 35 percent last year and we’re experiencing another 19 percent cut this year.
Community mental health organizations are the non-profit behavioral health teams that serve the needs of the poorest, most critically mentally ill and chemically dependent people in Washington. We contract with the state for funding of these services, and these funds represent about 75 percent of our total revenue.
People who are mentally ill are not going to just “go away.” If the legislature decides to cut state spending for mental health, they’ll just be shifting the cost of this treatment to more expensive settings. Here is a sample of cost-shifting comparisons based on state averages: the average per person annual cost of outpatient community mental health care is $1,132, while the average annual cost of incarcerating a mentally ill person in county jail is $21,170 and the average five-day admission at an inpatient psychiatric hospital is $3,210.
Compass Health joins other behavioral health providers in Washington in opposing further cuts to state mental health funding for direct client services. We propose alternatives such as examining new state revenue streams, accessing rainy day funds and streamlining administrative inefficiencies across all government agencies to help us reduce our cost of serving our clients.
We elect our state legislators to represent us. Part of that representation should be to ensure responsible budgeting that doesn’t shift costs to more expensive settings. Another is to represent all citizens equally, including people with mental illness.
President and CEO, Compass Health
Everett
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