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Ever since their son Brian was diagnosed with a developmental disability at the age of 3, Paige and Jason have worked hard to keep their marriage strong – for them, and for Brian and his younger sister Nora.
Then the layoff notices came.
Jason was laid off first. And while unemployment helped, the family’s household income took a sharp drop.
At about the same time, 16-year-old Brian, now six feet tall and over 200 pounds, began having episodes of extremely aggressive behavior – even becoming physically hostile with Paige and with his 6-year-old sister.
Then Paige was laid off, as well.
As Brian’s aggressiveness intensified, Jason and Paige became concerned about Nora’s safety – and their own. And the stress of Brian’s behavior and job loss caused extreme marital problems. Clearly, Brian needed inpatient care, while Paige and Jason felt counseling was critical for them.
Jason still had medical insurance, that they could access to cover their marital counseling, but it did not cover the specialty mental health services needed for Brian. And the family did not yet qualify for Medicaid.
Fortunately, the state has created a safety net for families like Brian’s. Community Mental Health Service Programs are required by state law to provide specialty treatment services for disabled people of all ages who are uninsured or underinsured.
The Saginaw County Community Mental Health Authority helped coordinate the services Brian and his family needed, including a hospital stay, behavior assessment and treatment plan and occupational therapy. SCCMHA also helped provide support services for Paige and Jason – and helped them through the procedure to apply for Medicaid for Brian. The family – while still struggling financially – is healthier, and getting the support it needs.
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The funding that currently provides that support could go away.
As Michigan legislators look at ways to solve the state’s budget crisis, they plan to cut general fund allocations for community mental health programs. Those cuts will eliminate the funding that provides mental health services for more than 2,500 Saginaw County residents each year.
Those cuts could destroy families like Paige and Jason’s.
Those cuts would put Sharon on a waiting list. An active duty soldier home from Iraq, Sharon showed up at the Saginaw Veteran’s Center, reporting that her parents wouldn’t allow her to stay at home because of her violent outbursts and aggression. SCCMHA’s crisis center connected Sharon to temporary shelter while coordinating counseling services for her, and later helped her connect with an aunt willing to take her in.
Regrettably, one night Sharon engaged in a serious suicide attempt, ingesting large amounts of alcohol and street drugs.
While she was in a local emergency room, she was evaluated by SCCMHA staff, who made arrangements for inpatient care at a downstate VA facility. While VA benefits are covering the long-term treatment that is helping Sharon recover, the care that helped her survive the crisis came from the mental health General Fund.
Those cuts would also have put JT on a waiting list. The 42-year-old lived with his brother and lost his job over a year ago. But when his brother died, JT was forced to move, with no insurance and no income, from the mobile home that they had shared for the past 15 years. He moved into the only thing he inherited from his brother: his car.
When the CMH staff met JT he had not eaten in days and was in poor physical health. He had been paying for medications by selling his blood. An alert worker at a nonprofit organization had regular contact with JT and grew concerned. She called SCCMHA, suggesting that JT needed a mental health evaluation. SCCMHA staff helped JT with his medications and helped pay for food and emergency housing; after an evaluation, he’s now receiving the long-term care he needs to treat his severe mental illness. He is living in a specialized residential program and hoping to be found eligible for Social Security Disability and Medicare.
All the assistance JT received was financed by General Fund dollars.
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While these are only three stories, there are thousands like them. Each day, one out of every three Saginaw County residents, who face an emotional crisis or require psychiatric inpatient service, is uninsured or underinsured.
Without adequate funding for services, people such as Brian and Sharon will not get the type of care they need. They will become “regulars” to emergency rooms, homeless shelters and law enforcement personnel and, in all likelihood, get progressively worse. Untreated, they will be unable to work and care for their children. Families will be split apart.
Without adequate funding for crisis services, people such as Sharon and JT will further endanger themselves and in some cases place others at risk.
Some of them will die.
One in five people will, at some point in their lives, have some form of mental illness. While we all understand the critical budget situation faced by the State of Michigan, we cannot remove the only safety net for a large percentage of those people. We cannot stand by as sometimes life-saving care is denied. We cannot allow the state government to remove the funding for services state law says we must provide and ignore the protections of disabled citizens provided for in the Michigan Constitution.
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It is important that we take action, immediately, to urge Michigan legislators to preserve general fund allocations for community mental health in Saginaw County and throughout our State.
Learn how to help here.
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