CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

$2M headache for Community Mental Health

Grand Haven Tribune (MI) - 5/8/2015

May 08--OTTAWA COUNTY -- County agency eyes millage to deal with funding reduction.

The Ottawa County Community Mental Health agency has a crisis on its hands.

"In October, we're looking at a $2 million shortfall in our budget," said Lynne Doyle, the agency's executive director. "A couple of different factors highlight the current problem we're having."

One issue stems from the money the agency gets from the state for its $38 million budget. The new Healthy Michigan program cut in half the dollars the local agency received through the state General Fund. This brought $3.4 million in funding received in 2014 down to about $1.4 million for 2015.

"We've got money from Medicaid totaling 94 percent, with 3-4 percent coming from the state's General Fund," Doyle said.

There was also a change to the Medicaid funding that's provided to the mental health agency.

"Ottawa County Community Mental Health was asked to regionalize with five other CMHs," Doyle said. "When we first became partners in this new region, the Michigan Department of Community Health divided up Medicaid on a new formula."

As a result of that new formula, the region saw a $10 million decline in funding, meaning fewer dollars to go around for the partner organizations.

"That all adds up to the $2 million this year," Doyle said of the cuts.

And funding could get even more challenging next year, Doyle said. She anticipates the agency could see a $6 million to $7 million cut.

Read the CMH's presentation on its funding issue: Download the PDF (Related File) below this story.

These funding reductions have had an impact on the organization from the top down, from the people making decisions to the ability to help clients.

"There are pretty significant changes for people, and it is a pretty big impact," Doyle said. "We looked to see if anything could be done more effectively and efficiently."

Doyle said the agency has laid off some employees and made reductions administratively, and they're also looking at how they can provide services to clients and possibly partner with local mental health providers.

"We contract for over 50 percent of services," Doyle said. "That amount will probably grow."

County Commissioner Roger Bergman of Grand Haven said the county has made Community Mental Health funding one of its legislative priorities for the year.

"The concern that I have is our legislators somehow have this jaded view that there isn't a correlation between when we cutback money for Community Mental Health and we see an increase in the amount of people in jail with mental health issues," he said. "Close to 50 percent in some of our jails are there because they have a mental health issue, as opposed to being a real criminal."

Bergman added that it is time to get state lawmakers to understand the relationship and encourage them to put money into mental health programs.

To help bridge the gap in funding, officials have considered a mental health millage, which could be placed on the ballot in November 2016, Doyle said.

An August 2014 survey of Ottawa County residents found 63 percent of respondents would support a new 0.3-mill tax to support Community Mental Health.

Doyle said further specifics of the millage, and what the costs would equate to for homeowners, have yet to be worked out.

"I don't know that we'll get back to exactly how we were, but you never know," she said.

Related Files:

CMH Community Forum

___

(c)2015 the Grand Haven Tribune (Grand Haven, Mich.)

Visit the Grand Haven Tribune (Grand Haven, Mich.) at www.grandhaventribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.