The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Mental health services cut to ‘triage situation’

Local state rep says reductions put stress on other systems.

Dorothy McNeil, a therapist with Mental Health Services for Clark and Madison Counties, is part of a network of counselors that helps nearly 5,000 Clark County residents a year. Ohio has cut budgets for mental health facilities around the same time their use has escalated.

Marshall Gorby/Staff Photo Dorothy McNeil, a therapist with Mental Health Services for Clark and Madison Counties, is part of a network of counselors that helps nearly 5,000 Clark County residents a year. Ohio has cut budgets for mental health facilities around the same time their use has escalated.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Dayton gets boost from committee for UAV testing
5/24/12
Patrol searches Springfield dealership for stolen cards
5/24/12
Police headlines: Two accused of child endangering
5/24/12
Ad calls Brown career politician
5/24/12
Local Focus: Clark County for May 25
5/24/12
> More headlines

By Brandon Smith-Hebson, Staff Writer 10:22 PM Monday, December 5, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — The shrunken economy saps the ability of agencies in Clark County to treat mental health.

The Mental Health and Recovery Board, the public agency that funds mental health facilities in Clark County, is now operating with $2 million less per year than it did in 2008 due to state budget cuts, according to Kent Youngman, board CEO. That’s a 44 percent cut in state funding.

Even a fiscal conservative in the state legislature, local Republican state Rep. Bob Hackett, said cuts have gone too far and should stop.

“I want government to live within its means, but I don’t really understand why (mental health) is such a bare-bones program right now.”

The state funding cut amounts to one-fifth of the board’s total budget once local levies are factored in.

“It’s a triage situation,” said Dan Barksdale, CEO of McKinley Hall, an alcohol and drug treatment center.

“You try to be open to anyone who wants help, but there are times when you just can’t. Not only is that frustrating from the consumer level, it’s also extremely frustrating for the staff who are delivering the service.”

Said Barksdale: “We have walk-in after walk-in after walk-in, and we can only see so many.”

About 5,000 people seek mental health help in Clark County every year, for illnesses ranging from schizophrenia to suicidal thoughts to depression.

Hackett represents rural parts of Clark and Greene counties and all of Madison County, and is on a state mental health task force.

Hackett voted for the state budget, he said, only because he didn’t want to hold up the process.

“When we don’t take care of these people, they get into other systems. Local governments, prisons,” Hackett said. “And those systems are more costly than treating them (through mental health programs). Cuts are really being counterproductive.”

Republican Gov. John Kasich plans to cut less from mental health than did his predecessor, Ted Strickland, a Democrat.

Kasich’s spokesman forwarded questions about mental health budgets to the Ohio Department of Mental Health.

Missy Craddock, a spokeswoman for the department, could not confirm the amount cut from Clark County’s allocation.

The distressed economy can worsen some mental health conditions.

“It is unfortunate that human services do run countercyclical due to the economy, just due to the nature of the need,” Craddock said.

James Perry agreed. He’s CEO of Mental Health Services of Clark County, which is funded by MHRB.

“You can look at life as love, work, and play,” Perry said. “If you remove a third of that, it’s a strong hit.”

Clark County’s unemployment rate in October — typically before seasonal retail hiring — was at 8.9 percent. Champaign County is listed at 8.8 percent unemployment by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The figures don’t account for people who have given up looking for work, often estimated to be another 10 percent of the population.

Adam Sorensen is director of Oesterlen Services for Youth, an inpatient and outpatient clinic that helps young people with a variety of problems.

“I can’t say that I know ... for sure about how society’s mental health has changed in the past couple of years,” Sorensen said. “I can tell you that in the mental health system, it’s been bogged down with an increasing number of cases.”

While MHRB is missing 20 percent of its operating budget, Youngman estimates that some agencies have had to cut the services they can actually render by 30 percent.

“Every day, we’re at 90 percent capacity in terms of numbers of beds available for mental health services,” Youngman said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0353.

Share this article