Extreme cuts to vital mental health services for Santa Cruz residents planned

Local Groups Will Be Holding a Rally to Preserve Mental Health Service

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Santa Cruz County and all mental health advocates are attending a rally for the protection of Mental Health Services in our County. The rally will be held on Tuesday June 10 at 9:30 AM in front of the County Government Building on Ocean Street. Many people with mental illness are losing their services or will receive reduced services.

We call on County Supervisors and the Santa Cruz County Community to preserve and fund the mental health system. We also call the community’s attention to the impact and the dire consequences of the proposed local, state, and federal budget cuts.

The false economy of cuts is obvious. The consequences of these reductions will intensify the current trends to:

Decrease availability of services for our children and adult loved ones
Increase the number of people with mental illnesses in the County jail systems
Increase the use of law enforcement to address mental health needs
Force vulnerable populations to become homeless
Increase unexpected deaths among mental health clients
Increase use of expensive hospital emergency rooms and psychiatric locked facilities

Santa Cruz County cannot afford to lose its safety-net. Call County Supervisors 454-2200.
The cuts that are planned for our County’s Mental Health services are tragic, over 100 mental health staff positions will be lost. Services are already very stretched. We will lose 65 beds in residential treatment programs which prepare people for community living.

We need to make known how desperately we need to keep and expand the minimal services that exist for our loved ones and families.

Some of the areas most affected by these cuts are:

*Mental Health Services are reduced or eliminated for at least 500 children and their families in both County and Contract programs. These services include therapy, case management, assessment, rehabilitation, therapeutic behavioral services, and medication.

*Community members in the Santa Cruz Jail on Water Street: The Jail Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) service provides mental health evaluations for individuals who appear at risk or suffer from a major psychiatric condition. The Jail CIT service had over 2,500 inmate contacts last year. CIT services have an average of 134 cases open each month to mental health crisis services in the Water Street Jail facility. This position is the primary provider of these services. The ability to provide crisis assessments and services will be reduced by approximately 75%.

*Santa Cruz Community Counseling Center’s (SCCCC) Intensive Community Assertive Treatment Team will be eliminated. This team provided care for 75 individuals with a serious psychiatric disability as well as a serious substance abuse problem; many of these individuals have criminal justice involvement and are homeless.

*Significantly reduce rental storage space for consumer belongings to be used while in locked care. No place to store belongings when between housing or in locked care. 15-20 patients per month.

*Eliminate Drake House 5-bed facility that provided specialty mental health care to seniors with complex medical conditions. Result: Older adults with complex medical problems no longer have a Board and Care level facility for their specialty needs.

*Eliminate Paloma 12-bed residential dual diagnosis treatment program in South County. 55 clients serviced annually. It is the only residential dual diagnosis treatment program in the county. This is the only residential treatment program in South County.

*Eliminate Opal Cliffs and Darwin House Residential Social Rehabilitation programs that provided 30 treatment beds focused on learning independent living skills which would enable clients to move to permanent independent housing in the community. There are 81 clients served by these programs annually.

*Homeless youth (including transitional-aged young people 12-24 years old) targeted are outreached primarily in the downtown and surrounding areas of Santa Cruz. Many are young people who have blown out or aged out of the foster care system locally and in surrounding counties. Eliminating positions that will leave a two-person team to provide services to this population throughout the county. Services will be limited to medical triage and crisis response. Intensive case management focused on integrating housing, health, employment, and other needed services to support long-term change for this population will be discontinued.

*An estimated 20 of 70 homeless and previously homeless adults will lose access to money management (representative payee) services and may be at risk to lose housing.

*Cuts to services in the Alcohol and Drug Program will affect residential treatment programs, alternatives to incarceration for jail inmates whose alcohol and drug abuse is an underlying factor in criminal involvement, outpatient and day treatment services, Prevention Program, and the public information and referral line, which assists the public in how to access local treatment programs.

*Closing Hermanas, a 16-bed treatment program for women and children, after December 31, 2008. Closure would affect 75 clients.

*Elimination of the Jail Transition Counselor Program will affect 180 jail inmates per year, who will likely spend more time in jail or prison without this alternative program. Reduction in Outpatient and Adult Drug Court services will impact 65 clients.

This is just a sample of the cuts our community will feel very deeply if the Board of Supervisors does not receive substantial public comment showing that these cuts are unacceptable to our community.

Please take action by calling, or e-mailing, or mailing your Board of Supervisors, or by attending the rallies and hearings described on the attached document.

Come to the rally and hearings to preserve Mental Health Services.

June 10 Tuesday 9:30 A.M. Rally on steps of County bldg. 701 Ocean St.

June 16 Monday 7:30 P.M. Watsonville, location to be determined

June 17 Tuesday 7:00 P.M. Public Hearing, 5th floor County Building

June 20 Friday 1:00 P.M. Public Hearing 5th floor County Building

June 26 Thursday 9:00 A.M. Last day of hearings 5th floor County Bldg

Two documents are attached. One describes the planned budget cuts and impacts, the other tells about how we can speak out.

If people prefer phone or email, that is a good alternative also. People can also call the Board at 454-2200 - this is a central number for all Board members. If you call during working hours you can ask for a specific Board member's voice mail. If you look on the Santa Cruz County government website http://www.co.santa-cruz.ca.us under "Meet the Board" each Board member has a link to their email address.

Thanks for your participation in this process - it is very important. In order for Board members to vote to take money from somewhere else they need to feel it is a huge community issue.