Sad for Texas

Today some news made me happy to be moving to a state other than Texas but so incredibly sad for my home state. The likelihood of significant budget cuts to public mental health services in Texas was announced today. [And yes, Mississippi has better funding for mental health services than we do!] Our center's executive director had already talked to us about the possibility of the cuts, but seeing it in the news made it seem a lot more real and scary. With Obama's new healthcare legislation, we are expecting an overflow of newly insured people seeking mental health services within the next couple of years. We are already serving a number much larger than what we are funded to serve because the state mandates we cannot deny services to a person with Medicaid. So, we are expecting an incredible increase in the number of people we are not allowed to turn away, while we are also expecting an incredible decrease in funding to provide services to these people?? Brilliant, Texas, brilliant. We currently rank 49th in the US for mental spending per capita, why not go for 50th? Our budget is horribly insufficient to meet the needs of our consumers. Our employees are paid peanuts and have less than desirable working conditions. This is hands down been one of the very hardest jobs I think that I will ever do. Period. I have made it two years which, sadly, is considered a long time for my type of position. Why? Because the system in which I work is BROKEN. It's absolutely, incredibly, mind blowingly frustrating to work in. And now the state of Texas had decided to make it WORSE. The Department of State Health was ordered to cut it's budget and it did. By taking almost half of the money from mental health services - taking $80 million from the 39 public mental health centers and $40 million from the 5 state hospitals [where it's already a forever long wait to get a bed - believe me, I've stayed up all night with clients in the ER trying to get them one!] We finally got funding for crisis services several years ago, and it's been wonderful to have a crisis team - they handle mental health crises for the entire Bryan/College Station area. They are facing a proposed $10 million reduction. What will happen to all of these people who are going to be without mental health services, Texas? They will be homeless in your streets, overcrowding your jails, causing devastating problems in your schools, and overflowing your emergency rooms. And Texans will foot the bill, which will cost MUCH more than the outpatient services provided to people at public mental health centers. An unwise and incredibly devastating move all around, Texas.

Link to a news article [from which I got my info]:

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/mental-health-programs-hit-hard-in-proposed-budget-791351.html